German state premier calls on Deutsche Bank to safeguard Postbank

"I urgently appeal to those in management and the supervisory board of Deutsche Bank to take no decision that would permanently endanger jobs in individual locations," Stephan Weil, the premier of the federal state of Lower Saxony, said in a statement.

Deutsche plans to decide on a major restructuring as early as Friday. This will include a sale of its Postbank arm and it may also sell its own-branded retail network to focus on more-profitable investment banking.

Weil pointed to building society BHW, owned by Postbank, saying he had met with Deutsche Bank management to express his concerns about the fate of BHW's 2,400 employees based in Lower Saxony.

"Employees of Postbank and its subsidiaries have been worried about their professional future for quite some time now," Weil said.

Should Postbank be sold, Postbank and BHW need to be maintained as stand-alone units, he said.

Lower Saxony is a northern German state with a population of 8 million and is home to carmaker Volkswagen AG .

Postbank has some 1,100 branches and 14 million clients.

German services union Verdi called on employees at Postbank to strike for an indefinite period in a dispute over job guarantees, the union said on Sunday.

(Reporting by Thomas Atkins. Editing by Jane Merriman)