Polish post office seeks to avert all-out strike over letter carriers' pay, conditions
Poland Managers of Poland’s state-owned post office sought Tuesday to head off the threat of a nationwide strike by letter-carriers who are demanding a hefty pay rise.
Mail deliveries in some of Poland’s major cities have been limited since Monday amid walkouts by some of Poczta Polska SA’s letter carriers.
Three labor unions that represent its 24,000 postal workers have threatened a nationwide strike demanding, among other things, a 40 percent pay increase. Letter carriers currently earn some 1,000 zlotys (USD330; euro250) per month.
Poczta Polska spokesman Radoslaw Kazimierski said post office head Zbigniew Niezgoda and other managers were in talks with the unions and had accepted other demands, among them a call for eight-hour work days and better recording of overtime.
Letter carriers say their working days currently far exceed eight hours and complain that they are carrying increasing volumes of mail.
They also are seeking job guarantees if the government goes ahead with a planned sale of shares in Poczta Polska.
Poczta Polska, which has long had a monopoly on domestic deliveries, already is facing increasing competition in Poland from courier services. The mail services market is due to be liberalized in 2009.
