African postal administrations urged to embrace new strategies to survive
African postal administrations have been urged to embrace new strategies to make post offices autonomous and profitable.
Tanzania’s minister of Labour, Employment and Youth, John Chiligati, told delegates attending the ILO/UPU tripartite seminar on Social Dialogue in the Postal Sector from 27-29 November in Bagamoyo, Tanzania that postal administrations should adopt new technological changes to sustain jobs.
“Technological changes can sustain and offer new job opportunities if the workers are trained in information technology; otherwise technological advancements will become a serious threat to workers,” he said.
“The challenge now is to train traditional postal workers in modern electronic postal services. The survival of the postal industry in our region will depend on how the human resource is trained, motivated and participating in social dialogue,”
The minister said that social dialogue was an important feature of modern labour relations and called for the involvement of workers in structural and technological changes being implemented in the postal sector in the region.
And Universal Postal Union (UPU) representative Daniel le Goff urged African countries not live in a world of exclusion, but to seize the new business opportunities unfolding in the postal sector such as financial services, post bus and e-commerce.
He said the UPU, in conjunction with postal administrations in Africa, was implementation the Postal Development Plan for Africa (PDPA), an ongoing postal reform process that required stakeholder involvement.
And ILO Postal/Telecoms Industry Specialist John Meyers said that social dialogue should encompass consultation, negotiation and dialogue to promote opportunities to attain decent work for all. He said consensus was needed on social and economic policy and urged the social partners to promote social dialogue across the postal industry and with regional bodies.
And UNI Head of Postal Sector John Pedersen informed the delegates that UNI and the UPU have signed a global framework agreement and were cooperating closely in ensuring sustainable development of postal services.
UNI-Africa News, November 2006
