Dutch mail company TNT NV said on Saturday it had sent a new proposal to unions, which included a maximum pay cut of 3.5%, but would prevent massive job cuts.

"Keeping jobs comes first," the company said in a letter to its workers, adding the proposal would give more time to help workers to find other jobs.

Plans by the country's largest postal firm to cut up to 11,000 jobs have strained relations with unions since they were announced more than two years ago.

TNT said in the letter if workers would accept a 3.5% cut in net income, the company only needed to lay off as much as 1,000 workers until 2012.

TNT is aiming to avoid painful strikes of the kind that have paralysed British peer Royal Mail. Like many competitors, including larger European rival Deutsche Post, it has been struggling to cope with falling consumer demand while coming to terms with the liberalisation of the mail market.

Some 23,000 staff work at TNT's mail unit.

The AbvaKabo union said the letter was a move in the right direction.