BONN (dpa-AFX) - A good three decades after their privatization, the successor companies to the German Federal Post Office still have thousands of civil servants in their ranks. At the turn of the year, Deutsche Post still had around 18,000 civil servants, as the logistics company announced on request. More than 90 percent of them work in the Post & Parcel Germany division, mainly as mail carriers, parcel delivery staff, and sorters, but also as administrative employees.

The Bonn-based company is listed on the stock exchange as Deutsche Post AG, but has since renamed itself DHL for everyday business purposes. The globally positioned group has more than 200,000 employees in Germany, meaning that the proportion of civil servants is well below ten percent.

Proportion of civil servants falling steadily

The proportion of civil servants is falling year on year, as no one has been appointed to the civil service at Deutsche Post since 1995. At the end of 2014, there were just over 45,000 civil servants, and by the end of 2019, there were just under 30,000. The last postal workers to be appointed as civil servants in 1994 and who have remained with the company throughout their careers will retire in 2043 – at which point, civil servants at Deutsche Post will be a thing of the past.

At Deutsche Telekom, there were still around 9,700 civil servants working at the turn of 2024/25, all of whom were in full-time positions. At the end of 2020, there were still around 18,400, and at the end of 2015, around 32,000. According to the information provided, civil servants accounted for 13 percent of Telekom employees in Germany.

Postbank, which handles branch operations for Deutsche Post in Postbank finance centers, also still has civil servants in its ranks, but has not published figures for several years. In 2019, there were around 3,400 full-time employees and 900 part-time employees who were civil servants. At that time, the bank paid 86 million euros into the civil service pension fund. Telekom and Deutsche Post also have such financial expenses to meet the pension entitlements of civil servants.

The German postal service was privatized in 1995, giving rise to Deutsche Post, Deutsche Telekom, and Postbank. Since then, no one has been hired as a civil servant at these companies—Postbank now belongs to Deutsche Bank. /wdw/DP/zb