FRANKFURT/BONN (dpa-AFX) - Ten days after the start of wage negotiations at Postbank, the trade union Verdi has begun the first warning strikes. The nationwide actions are to start in Hamburg on Friday and be extended to other federal states in the following days, as Verdi announced on Thursday. Both branches and customer-facing areas are to be affected.

The union justified the warning strikes with what it sees as disappointing wage negotiations. "The bank's business figures, which have just been published, show that The financial scope for good wage increases is there," argued Verdi negotiator Jan Duscheck.

Verdi is demanding 15.5 percent more money for around 12,000 employees in the Deutsche Bank Group with a Postbank collective agreement, but at least a salary increase of 600 euros. The Deutsche Bank Employees' Association wants 14.5 percent more money for the employees of Postbank, Postbank Branch Sales, PCC Services and BCB. The second round of negotiations is scheduled for February 26 in Frankfurt.

The parties had already reached an agreement on another issue shortly before Christmas: Protection against dismissal, which would have expired at the end of January, was extended. Deutsche Bank pledged to refrain from dismissals for operational reasons for employees covered by collective agreements in its Private Clients Bank in Germany until the end of September 2024. The trade unions had put pressure on this issue after the bank announced at the end of October that it would be closing up to 250 of the 550 Postbank branches by mid-2026, including staff cuts./ben/DP/men