German newspaper Frankurter Allegemeinen Sonntagszeitung said Deutsche Post CEO Frank Appel was to announce the cost-cutting program on Monday. The company was already talking of a “black Monday,” the paper said.
Most of the layoffs are expected to take place in the US where Deutsche Post has posted losses worth billions of dollars in recent years. For the current year, Deutsche Post reckons with a $1.3 billion loss in the US.
The paper said Appel was determined to end the company’s financial slide and pull out of all ventures whose risks remain incalculable. That would involve slashing up to 40,000 jobs in the United States — 20,000 directly at Deutsche Post and an equal number among Post’s US partners, the report said. The group has been hard hit by the economic slowdown in the US where it is represented by, among other activities, the express courier service DHL.
The company also plans to cut administrative costs worldwide. That move could also threaten jobs in Germany, the paper said.