Austrian Post office to cut down 1,000 jobs
The Austrian Post Office is to cut down 1,000 jobs in Austria this year at the same time as expanding its activities in eastern and southeastern Europe.
Post Office chief executive Anton Weis was quoted as saying his firm had already changed from “a receiver of subsidies to a payer of dividends”.
But it must continue getting “smaller and slimmer”. The report said staff costs would be reduced by 50 million euros to 950 million this year.
At the same time the Post Office was considering takeovers in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. Involvement in Croatia, Slovenia and Slovakia would be expanded as well.
Last year the Post Office already reduced 2,000 of its 29,000 staff. There was a protest work-to-rule by postmen in March 2003. Two months later, reports said the Post Office would reduce staff by as much as 6,000 by 2006, meaning there would be nearly 10,000 fewer postal workers than in 1999.
Trade union leaders feared there were plans to privatize the Post Office and sell huge sections of it to foreign owners. But Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser said no such plans had been finalized yet.
