Bid to cut New Zealand Saturday mail deliveries

Mail deliveries could be cut to a Monday to Friday service if postal workers are successful in their bid to have their six-day working week reduced.

The Postal Workers Federation is seeking a five-day delivery week, with no pay cuts, as part of its 2006 collective agreement negotiations.

South Canterbury postal workers are in a different union, the New Zealand Amalgamated Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EMPU).

Union organiser John Gardner said negotiations were a couple of months away and the topic had not been raised yet.

Mr Gardner said the idea of a five- day week was regularly raised in discussions; he had heard it suggested 20 years ago.

Although not prepared to go on record, several Timaru posties said they personally felt the idea had merit.

New Zealand Post has said there is “no prospect” of such a change.

Nelson union member Dawn Astin said posties and mail handlers’ work was very physical, and a six-day week often left them exhausted.

“We don’t have time to recover. Really physical work for long periods of time leads to having accidents.”

Mrs Astin said the pay freeze was justified because workers would have to work longer hours to deliver the same amount of mail in five days.

The union wants NZ Post to ask the public, through a public vote, whether they want mail delivered on Saturdays.

Mrs Astin said a similar consultation was held when the company stopped Easter Saturday deliveries, and because the service was owned by the public, they had a right to have a say.

The workers are planning to wear fluorescent yellow bands printed with “5 on 2 off” to work on Saturday to alert the public to their cause.

n Fairfax NZ Nelson