DHL Express Defends Job Losses at Leipzig Hub as Union Alleges Covert Cuts
16.06.2026 - 07:45:54 | boerse-global.de
The union DPVKOM has accused DHL of quietly slashing around 1,000 positions at its international airfreight hub in Leipzig over the past two years. Christina Dahlhaus, the union’s national chairwoman, condemned the logistics giant’s approach, calling it a backdoor reduction. The local works council agrees, describing a systematic downsizing of the workforce.
DHL acknowledges a sharp drop in headcount but rejects claims of a hidden or targeted layoff plan. At the start of 2024, more than 7,000 people worked at the site; by early 2026, that figure had fallen to roughly 6,000. Management attributes the decrease to natural turnover and says vacant roles have been deliberately left unfilled because of weakening shipment volumes, a trend the company has seen since 2022.
While staffing contracts, DHL Express continues to pour money into security technology. The hub covers 48,000 square metres and handles up to 60 aircraft daily. Over the last three years, video analytics systems for detecting intruders and theft have been heavily deployed—partly to comply with stringent EU safety rules. Those rules gained urgency after incendiary devices were found at hubs in Leipzig and Birmingham in July 2025, triggering security alarms.
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Despite belt-tightening in its core express business, the parent group is chasing growth in newer markets. CEO Tobias Meyer has announced plans to quintuple revenue from renewable-energy logistics: from €600 million in 2025 to around €3 billion. The focus includes battery, wind-turbine, solar-panel and hydrogen-technology supply chains. In early 2027, DHL Supply Chain intends to open a new European logistics centre for high-voltage batteries in the Netherlands.
The DHL Leipzig job cuts are part of a broader restructuring across Saxony’s industrial landscape. Volkswagen is pushing ahead with a transformation that will eliminate more than 35,000 positions in Germany by 2030, hitting its Saxon plants as well. Meanwhile, dairy group Müller plans to shut Landliebe sites in southern Germany by end-2026, moving part of that production to Leppersdorf in Saxony. The brewing sector is also shifting: Haus Cramer Gruppe is negotiating social plans for around 200 workers as it prepares to close or sell sites in Herford and Paderborn during 2026.
