Itella service disrupted by postal staff protests

Finland’s Itella has apologized for disruption in its services yesterday caused by a series of strikes by staff protesting new postal legislation. The company said its mail sorting staff left their workplaces on Thursday, following the passing of the Postal Act in the Finnish Parliament on Wednesday.

The legislation brings into Finnish law the European Union Directive requiring that EU Member States open up their postal markets to competition.

Itella said staff at its Itella Posti Jyväskylä sorting facility went on strike last week, along with staff at its logistics centre in Vantaa and at the postal centres of Seinäjoki and Tampere.

Although staff returned to the postal centres on Thursday to help clear the mail backlog, Itella said the protests had caused delays in the mail service in several locations, with a “minor impact” on the whole of Finland.

Itella said it would put special arrangements in place to deliver items as quickly as possible.

Although domestic and international freight services were not affected, the industrial action did mean several thousand first-class letters and around 1,000 parcels due to be delivered Friday would be delayed until the beginning of this week.

Itella said “almost all” express parcels were delivered as usual, with most of its regular parcels delivered only a day late.

Healthcare letter mail could also face delays, as the company was unable to negotiate special arrangements for them.

In a statement, the company said late last week: “The protests are very regrettable for Itella. Although they do not target Itella, the customers of Itella and Itella as a company are the ones suffering. In this financial situation of the company and the changing competitive situation, all measures which weaken customer service and confidence in Itella are harmful and may cause difficulties to keeping jobs.

“We hope that there will be no more protests but our employees would use self-control and discretion in this matter,” added the company’s statement.

Postal Act

The legislation at the heart of the protests in Finland is the new Postal Act, which redefines the universal service obligation in the Scandinavian country to comply with Europe’s desire to liberalise its postal markets.

The new law, passed by 108 votes to 72 in the Finnish Parliament on Wednesday, sets the universal service obligation as covering letters up to 2kg in weight and parcels up to 10kg in weight, both paid for in cash.

The service obligation would no longer automatically fall to Itella, but would be to the discretion of the Finish Communications Regulatory Authority to assign based on the market situation.

It is expected that the legislation will bring competition for the delivery of letters in densely-populated areas of urban Finland, but Itella has warned that loss of such delivery services would affect its provision of delivery services in more remote areas of Finland.