Fall in mail volumes prompts Posti to look at job cuts
Finland’s Posti has announced that it will have to consider cutting back on staff numbers, as the sharp fall in mail delivery volumes in 2015 reduced its net sales by €75m. In a statement issued yesterday (26 January), Posti said: “To secure profitability, Posti will launch cooperation negotiations, in which the preliminary reduction need for permanent personnel in production, administration and sales and customer service is no more than 860 people.”
Heikki Malinen, President and CEO of Posti, commented: “Digitalization has already reduced overall delivery volumes to the level of the 1960s. Therefore, we must adapt and reform our operations in order to ensure that Posti will still maintain its financial capability to build new business in order to compensate for mail delivery.
“The transformation is historically dramatic so, unfortunately, we also have to target savings to our personnel. I´m confident that in future we can also create jobs, especially in parcel and logistics services.”
Posti said it will start the “cooperation negotiations” next Tuesday (2 February), adding that it hoped “as much of the reductions as possible can be carried out through voluntary arrangements, retirement, lay-offs and other actions”. The company also anticipated that “some employment relationships will also be turned into part-time employments”.
The Posti statement added: “The need for personnel reduction concerns basic delivery in production, the entire sales and customer service, and the administration.
“The change does not concern Posti’s other services, such as early-morning newspaper delivery, mail sorting in postal centers and logistics centers, parcel, freight and warehousing services or Posti’s service point network (postal outlets, parcel points and pickup points).
“The sphere of negotiations covers a total of some 7,600 permanent employees. Posti’s personnel on September 30, 2015, numbered 21,187 persons.”
