Irish An Post and staff at odds over future
Arcane trade union practices are threatening An Post’s potentially profitable bulk mail business, according to company management.
Direct marketing mail increased by 22 per cent last year, as traditional postal services declined.
Last week, An Post began an investigation into the dumping of bulk mail in a ditch by postal staff in Co Meath.
The company’s commercial director, DerekKickham, said it was not an isolated incident and indicated a need for workers to undergo a mindset change’. But Sean McDonagh, of the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU), said only one postal worker had been sacked for dumping mail in the past year.
One example of restrictions cited byAn Post is the union’s refusal to collect mail from a postbox inthe IFSCinDublin. Snap Print, which acts as a mail centre, produces 18 bags of mail a day, but the CWU has refused to approve mail pick-ups fromthe postbox outside the shop, forcing the company to make alternative arrangements.
McDonagh confirmed that there were difficulties’ over collections from the postbox. This was a pilot scheme that was introduced without any consultations with ourselves, and we felt it would not be good for business and would lead to operational difficulties and late posting. The traditional postage industry is in decline in all developed countries, due to the growing use of e-mail andmobile phones.
In Ireland, the number of items delivered to each house fell from 520 in 2001 to 412 in 2004, though the economic boom meant that an extra 350,000 delivery points have been created since 2001.
Last week, An Post’s group of unions launched a report calling for expansion of the workforce and growth in traditional mail services.
An Post – A NewVision by economist PaddyWalley, argues that postal services internationally report very strong growth’ in revenue and profits for 2004, through growth in mail volumes and revenues. It described An Post’s strategy as a formula for decline’.
Kickham said the report was quite some distance’ from management’s strategy to return An Post to profitability.
He said new households simply added delivery costs forAn Post. Figures for the absolute volume ofmail do not tell us that much, he said. The first item on the agenda for chief executives of all major postal companies across the world is the decline in their mail business. The CWU will allow its members to deliver only up to five items of bulk or junk’ mail a week to each household. Each item can weigh no more than 100 grammes. But up to eight items of junk’ mail – priced at 6 cent each – must be delivered to offset the revenue loss of one traditional letter at 48 cent.
Postal workers receive between 3 and 5 cent for each item of junk mail delivered. After an operating loss of E43 million in 2003, An Post broke even last year, primarily by not paying E60 million due to staff under the national wage agreement.
An Post says a stamp price increase from 48 to 60 cent is crucial to its ability to pay the E60 million due under the pay agreement, Sustaining Progress, this year.
The company’s chief executive, Donal Curtin, wants to cut staff by 1,500, reduce the company’s overtime bill and limit restrictive practices.
The unions have resisted the programme at the Labour Relations Commission for more than 18 months, but the court may shortly clear the way for implementation of the plan.
