Trade unions and employers in the logistics sector have reached agreement on 12-hour shifts at weekends.
This is “a historic agreement,” both the UPTR federation - which represents transport and logistics companies - and the socialist transport workers union, BTB-ABVV, commented.
Talks have been ongoing for several years, but until now, 12-hour shifts during weekends in logistics warehouses were only possible after intra-company agreements. At the industry level, there was a limit of 10 hours. This will now change.
On Thursday morning, an agreement was reached in the Joint Committee for Transport and Logistics for an arrangement at the sector level, said the UPTR. “Consequently, in the logistics sector, from now on it will be possible to have two 12-hour shifts on weekends as well,” the professional federation stated in a press release. “The far-reaching flexibility that many logistics companies are willing to provide is thus given another boost.”
The agreement was confirmed by the BTB-ABVV. It applies to non-driving personnel such as people working in Kuehne+Nagel or DHL warehouses, for example, union official Tom Peeters explained.
The socialist union welcomed the agreement. “In the whole discussion around e-commerce, we have shown once again with this that we can achieve a number of things in the sector regarding flexibility,” Peeters said. He added that many people had been asking to work two 12-hour shifts on weekends, because that is considered a full-time job, and they then have space during the week to do other things.
An agreement on night work was reached earlier in the logistics sector.
