La Poste cannot afford to pause modernisation, says Bailly
La Poste chairman and CEO Jean-Paul Bailly is postponing moves to give employees a 3% ownership in the company to September, as he seeks to get to grips with a troubled work culture. But, angering unions, Bailly said yesterday that La Poste could not afford to pause its ongoing modernisation efforts.
In the wake of two recent suicides at the French postal service, Bailly said yesterday that shifting plans for the staff share ownership project back to September would allow the group to focus on its efforts to improve working conditions.
That process was officially launched yesterday as a “grand dialogue”, which will see discussion with trade unions and workers, along with other stakeholders and relevant experts, through to mid-September.
Meanwhile, transformation of La Poste looks set to continue, as the company seeks to respond to a 15% decline in mail volumes seen since 2008.
La Poste said: “During this period, the adaptation of the company cannot take a break. Some projects will continue, others may see their schedules relaxed in order to strengthen training phases and personal feedback, and finally others may be rescheduled.”
Bailly and his management team already began talks with unions last week regarding initial ideas on improving working conditions. He said yesterday that a concrete series of measures would be initially published on April 30, and “implementation will be undertaken quickly”.
Yesterday also saw the La Poste chairman announcing that he would create the new role of Mediator of Life at Work, to which his chief of staff Dominique Blanchecotte was being appointed.
A member of the Group executive committee, the mediator will be able to deal with the personal situations of individual postal workers, working with unions and occupational health professionals, with the decision-making powers to resolve issues.
Unions
French unions CGT, SUD, FO, CFDT, CGC/UNSA and CFTC united for a joint press conference today for the first time since 2008 to express their disappointment in the measures from Bailly.
The unions said the actions were “still very far from what it would take” to respond to “difficult situations” being experienced by postal workers, and that the severity of the current problems needed more than a listening exercise.
“It is high time that the management of La Poste agreed to open their eyes to the real situation of postal workers,” the unions said in a joint statement.
“Improved living conditions and the work of mail staff and the public postal service requires above all the stopping or freezing of restructuring, reorganising and the destruction of jobs purely in the interest of profitability.”
The unions said freezing the restructuring of La Poste would allow more relaxed negotiations to take place regarding working conditions, arguing that recent positive financial results should be the basis for improving daily living conditions, wages and job creation.
According to union representatives, much of the pressure has come because so many workers leaving the company each year are not being replaced – 10,000 jobs were lost by attrition in 2011, and 11,700 in 2010, they said.
The unions do not support the employee share ownership programme, and therefore dismissed the significance of Bailly’s move to postpone it until September.
