Recruitment drive delayed at Brazil’s Correios

Brazil’s Correios has put back its plans for a nationwide recruitment drive from this week’s planned launch. The national postal company issued a statement on Monday explaining that it had been unable to finalize arrangements with a contractor that was to have managed the hiring process.

The tender had already been subject to repeated delay stretching back to 2009, including a court order last November calling for a full review of the process.

Correios was to have launched a full national tender this week, detailing the vacancies open to applicants around Brazil.

In its statement, the company said it was still expecting the launch to take place in the first half of 2011.

Vacancies are expected to be full-time, mid-level positions with Correios seeking letter carriers, clerks, sorting staff and drivers.

Haggai Smith, a regional director at Correios, told local media the company was considering a possible increase in job offerings for the tender, potentially up to as many as 8,000 jobs.

Brazil’s postal unions have been critical of working conditions at the national postal operator in recent months, suggesting that rising mail volumes were not being matched by increased staff resources.

The union Sintect/DF said last month that more than one million applicants had signed up for the selection process last year, before a federal judge ordered the review.

Brazil’s Correios currently has 107,992 employees, including about 55,000 delivery staff handling about 35 million pieces each day.

• The state of the Latin American postal market will be one of the key talking points at next month’s World Mail and Express Americas Conference in Mexico City. Click here for more details »