European post offices axe thousands
Europe’s Post Offices are presently undergoing systemic changes as a result of increasing liberalization of their markets, the impending threat of competition and the downturn in the region’s economy. This has forced many of Europe’s largest mail operators to make wholesale redundancies, at all levels from managing director down.
In recent days it has been reported that La Poste, the French Post Office, is likely to make up to a third of the employees of its TAT Express subsidiary redundant in order to stem losses at the specialist business to business division. The company presently employs around 1,600 staff. In Ireland up to 1,500 staff at An Post, Ireland’s national postal operator, could be axed as the company attempts to make its operations profitable. The Chief Executive of the postal service and the Managing Director of SDS, its express arm have recently been replaced.
Meanwhile it is also reported that Royal Mail, the UK post office, has ‘quietly sacked’ three top managers. Managing director Jerry Cope, Royal Mail International director Kevin Williams and Mick Linsell, director of delivery operations have all recently left their jobs. This is in addition to the large scale job cuts which it has implemented over the past year.
The wave of redundancies which is being made in order to streamline organizations and bring in new management thinking has been inevitable for some time. Deutsche Post and TNT Post Group undertook these type of reforms in the mid to late 1990s which left them in a much stronger position than many of their European counterparts. These two postal operators are now poised to develop competing services in markets such as the UK, where the state incumbent is still in the midst of internal upheaval.
