Lithuania Post adds €1m into wage pot for lowest-paid workers
Lithuania Post has pledged to increase wages for its lowest-paid staff from this month, with a EUR 1m addition to the company salary fund. The state-owned postal service said around 3,000 employees will benefit from a salary increase, including staff running post offices as well as customer service staff, mail delivery staff, sorting staff and operators.
The money will be paid as a basic salary increase, rather than a bonus.
The move has been welcomed by trade unions.
Lithuania Post chief executive Lina Minderienė said the salary increase came as her company was working to improve overall working conditions for its staff.
“Lithuania Post is one of the largest employees in Lithuania. In cooperation with trade unions carrying out their activities within the company, we are striving to improve working conditions, to make investments into the employee’s education, and to generate and increase motivation,” she said.
“Considering the changes in the market, we have revised salaries of the largest part of employees. As of April, EUR 1m will be allocated to the salary fund.”
Trade union chiefs Alma Smilgienė and Svajūnas Andriulis said they were pleased at the pay increase reflecting favourable circumstances at Lithuania Post.
Representatives of the unions active in the postal service said: “We are pleased to have a close cooperation with the management of the company. Last year, a new collective agreement was signed. This agreement provided additional opportunities and privileges, and this year, as a result of better financial performance, we can talk about salary rise for the lowest-paid positions.”
Lithuania Post, one of the largest employers in the Baltic Republic, paid its postal delivery staff the equivalent of about EUR 347 a month in 2014. Sorting staff received EUR 376 per month, head of post offices EUR 477 per month. The lowest pay scale, for maintenance staff, paid EUR 313 per month. Lithuania’s average wage (gross) is EUR 715 per month according to government statistics, with the minimum monthly wage set at EUR 300 per month.
Lithuania Post hasn’t yet issued its full year results for 2014, but unaudited figures for the first nine months showed the net loss of LTL 3.4m (EUR 1m) seen in the same period of 2013 was turned into a LTL 2.5m (EUR 724,000) net profit. [n.b. Lithuania adopted the Euro as of the start of 2015, in place of the Lita].
The company increased its sales revenue in the first nine months of 2014 by 4% year-on-year, to LTL 146.3m (EUR 42.4m).
Commenting on the wage increase for lowest-paid staff, Lithuania’s minister of transport and communications Rimantas Sinkevičius said: “I am glad that Lithuania Post run by the Ministry of Transport and Communications has a socially-driven attitude towards the company’s employees and increases both their income and satisfaction with the company and life in Lithuania.”
