DSV Panalpina has decided to offer a voluntary and unilateral social plan to all Panalpina head office employees in Basel affected by the announced redundancies to take place in Q4-2019 and H1-2020.

While both intent and hope were to arrive at a mutually agreed social plan within the announced timeline, unfortunately, the parties have not been able to reach an agreement, yet.

During the last two weeks, however, negotiations have resulted in a better understanding of expectations on both sides, and, as a result, significant improvements have been made to DSV Panalpina’s original proposal.

The company is still in dialogue with employee representatives and continues negotiations. If, ultimately, negotiations remain unsuccessful, the next step is arbitration, which means an additional long period of uncertainty.

An offer to support the employees’ future

Being a socially responsible employer, DSV Panalpina has decided to voluntarily implement the measures proposed in its latest offer to the employee representatives. It does not believe it is in the best interest of the employees to go through another long period of uncertainty – and without outplacement support.

The company believes that any social plan should focus on helping redundant employees to find a new job as quickly as possible. For this reason, the proposed social plan focuses on career counselling and support with the aim of ensuring the continued foothold of employees in the labour market.

The proposed initiative is facilitated through an external expert in the field and includes:

• Individual career coaching sessions
• Career assessment workshop
• Expert workshops, including “CV-Factory” or “Social Media”
• On-site career centre with weekly job postings and matchings
• Referral to key staffing companies and ad-hoc counselling

In addition, DSV Panalpina is prepared to grant severance payments and other benefits that support vulnerable employee groups and acknowledges loyalty to Panalpina:

• Severance payments of 2-6 months for eligible employees
• Financial support for early retirement (available from age 58)
• Additional consideration in personal hardship cases
• Best effort to place redundant employees on garden leave

DSV Panalpina hosted a townhall meeting at the Panalpina head office on 18 November 2019 to present the voluntary social plan in detail to employees as well as answer any questions from the floor.

The voluntary social plan will not be released in its entirety as the company remains open to further negotiations.

Negotiations and related processes are in full compliance with Swiss labour law and are overseen by HR and legal professionals.