Building cleaning and maintenance: Swiss Post prepares for market liberalization

Swiss Post has to prepare for planned full market liberalization. It therefore wants to transfer its cleaning and maintenance services, which are not part of its core business, into a separate company. The unit responsible – Service House – should thus be able to offer its services at standard market rates in future. The current collective employment contract (CEC) conditions mean that costs are considerably higher than market rates. Swiss Post intends to hold talks with the unions about possible solutions over the next few months.

Swiss Post wants to eliminate the competitive disadvantages prior to the deregulation planned by the Federal Council. This includes the cleaning and maintenance services, which are not part of its core business. One problem is the lack of flexibility in recruiting – compared with the competition – under the current Swiss Post CEC. The current CEC conditions mean that costs for cleaning at Service House are considerably higher than market rates.

Swiss Post wants to offer its employees opportunities and make the Service House unit competitive over the medium term. It therefore favours a solution within Swiss Post Group, as foreseen in the CEC and already implemented a number of times with the unions. This means outsourcing the business into a subsidiary. The collective employment agreement provided for in such cases will be adopted and industry-specific adjustments will be set out in a follow-up agreement. It should be noted that almost all European postal organizations have outsourced their cleaning and maintenance work to external companies. Swiss Post wants to hold talks with the unions in the next few months with the aim of agreeing further steps by mid-year.

Swiss Post has to prepare for planned full market liberalization. It therefore wants to transfer its cleaning and maintenance services, which are not part of its core business, into a separate company. The unit responsible – Service House – should thus be able to offer its services at standard market rates in future. The current collective employment contract (CEC) conditions mean that costs are considerably higher than market rates. Swiss Post intends to hold talks with the unions about possible solutions over the next few months.

Swiss Post wants to eliminate the competitive disadvantages prior to the deregulation planned by the Federal Council. This includes the cleaning and maintenance services, which are not part of its core business. One problem is the lack of flexibility in recruiting – compared with the competition – under the current Swiss Post CEC. The current CEC conditions mean that costs for cleaning at Service House are considerably higher than market rates.

A number of approaches

Swiss Post wants to offer its employees opportunities and make the Service House unit competitive over the medium term. It therefore favours a solution within Swiss Post Group, as foreseen in the CEC and already implemented a number of times with the unions. This means outsourcing the business into a subsidiary. The collective employment agreement provided for in such cases will be adopted and industry-specific adjustments will be set out in a follow-up agreement. It should be noted that almost all European postal organizations have outsourced their cleaning and maintenance work to external companies. Swiss Post wants to hold talks with the unions in the next few months with the aim of agreeing further steps by mid-year.

Service House

With a staff of 2,450 (850 full-time equivalents), Service House provides comprehensive services in the fields of infrastructural building management, technical building management and technical services, primarily for Swiss Post. With a sales volume of 120 million Swiss francs and a portfolio of around two million square metres, Service House is one of the five biggest providers of facility management services in Switzerland. Its employees are subject to the Swiss Post CEC and CEC for auxiliary staff.