Deutsche Post workers to expand parcel strike on Friday

DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) - Workers at Deutsche Post will expand strike action on Friday to a nationwide walkout to protest against the German group's plans to grow its parcel delivery business by using employees on lower pay deals, labour union Verdi said. Talks between the two had ended with no agreement on Tuesday and Friday's nationwide walkout follows a 24-hour strike on Thursday at parcel centres in the North Rhine Westphalia industrial region. Like other former postal service monopolies in Europe, such as Britain's Royal Mail , Deutsche Post's traditional letter business is shrinking while deliveries of parcels are rising due to online retailing. It announced plans in January to create 10,000 new jobs at its parcel business by 2020, but said new workers would have to accept lower wages than other group employees as it and its DHL express division try to compete with the likes of UPS and TNT . Verdi has said such a move would breach an agreement limiting how much business Deutsche Post can outsource and said it would only accept it if the company shortened the hours of about 140,000 workers to 36 per week from 38.5. "Verdi members are fuming," the union's deputy chairwoman Andrea Kocsis said in a statement. Verdi said it expected more than 1,000 workers at parcel centres to take part in Thursday's strike. It expects several thousand for Friday's walkout. Deutsche Post and Verdi will meet for fresh talks on April 27 and 28. The company said the strike was therefore not necessary and that it hoped to keep disruption to a minimum. Workers held a two-day strike earlier this month. In addition, Verdi has asked a court to grant an injunction to stop Deutsche Post from going ahead with its plans for the parcel business. (Reporting by Matthias Inverardi; Writing by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter)