Polish Post a joint stock company

MPs from the Sejm’s infrastructure and treasury committees gave a green light to transforming the Poczta Polska (PP) Polish postal service into a company, owned solely by the State Treasury. The draft resolution stipulates that the Sejm agrees to this move but reserves the right to keep its option to sell PP’s shares in the future. “This is not a privatisation. We are giving PP a chance to change its legal status so that it will be able to compete with other companies on the market,” said Malgorzata Ostrowska of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD). The Deputy Minister of Treasury, Wojciech Halka, also thinks that turning PP into a joint stock company will allow it to conduct necessary restructuring that will better prepare PP for competing on the liberalised postal services market. Meanwhile, PP’s labour unions claim the service is not yet ready for such major changes. In mid-2004, PP had 94,600 employees and enjoyed a revenue of more than ZL3bn.