Postal Union action to hit Australian Postal Services
Mail services will be disrupted around the country from Thursday as postal workers in three states walk off the job for 24 hours over pay and conditions.
The action is part of the first national postal strike in almost 20 years.
Australia Post workers, members of the Communications Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU), will stop work for 24 hours in NSW, Victoria and Queensland on Thursday for mass meetings to discuss further industrial action on enterprise bargaining.
CEPU Victorian postal and telecommunications branch secretary Joan Doyle said postal workers in other states and territories would stop work for the meetings sometime next week.
Workers were offered an eight per cent pay rise over two years and $400 performance bonuses linked to customer service achievements but Ms Doyle said the rises were less than those paid to managers last year.
Ms Doyle said workers would not agree to the proposed enterprise bargaining agreement because it left the way open for Australia Post to split many full-time positions into part-time jobs.
It would also allow Australia Post to franchise the nation’s network of post offices, she said, leaving workers’ conditions unregulated and reducing services.
“We have a very hard-working, loyal, well-trained retail staff,” Ms Doyle said.
“We know (Australia) Post very well, and at the end of the day they will franchise the whole network, which means it can’t provide the same service quality and universality you have now.
“I hope they (Australia Post) will see that people are very strong on this, and there is no way they are going to get around us.”
Australia Post spokesman Matt Pollard encouraged customers to post early this week to avoid delays.
Mr Pollard said everything possible would be done to minimise the impact of the strike, calling the union action “unnecessary”.
“We expect that a large number of our people will ignore the union call for 24 hour stoppages and volunteers from across the organisation will greatly reduce any impact from the planned industrial action,” Mr Pollard said.
“However, some delays are inevitable.”
Australia Post management was “puzzled” by the union’s action, Mr Pollard said.
“Australia Post had tabled a very competitive offer some two months ago and the outstanding issues between the parties were steadily being resolved through productive negotiation,” Mr Pollard said.
“The offer is fair and reasonable by any measure.
“The union’s action will simply inconvenience customers unnecessarily and cost those who participate a day’s pay.”
Australia Post offices were expected to open as usual on Thursday and Express Post items and mail to post office boxes would be delivered but some mail placed in street-side post boxes might not be collected and processed until Friday, Mr Pollard said.
