The week that was: 22 October 2010
USPS facing more health & safety fines, UPS ‘exceeds expectations’, and TNT offers to reduce number of lay-offs… Good afternoon one and all, ‘the week that was’ is here to keep you up-to-date with the biggest stories to come out the mail and express sectors over the last seven days. Enjoy.
Starting this week in America, USPS could lose tens of millions of dollars for a series of “willful” health and safety violations at its processing facilities across America. The organisation is being sued by the federal government for what are described as an “indifference to employee safety and health”. USPS has been accused of putting its workers at risk and ignoring long-established safety procedures. The latest fine, announced this week, was for five safety violations at the USPS processing centre in Columbus, Ohio, for which a $210,000 fine was proposed by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OHSA), an agency of the US Department of Labor. The Columbus fine brings the Postal Service’s total fines imposed this year to more than $4.3m, for violations in at least 15 processing centres. Now, the OHSA is currently looking into health and safety complaints regarding 350 of the USPS locations. Assistant secretary of labour for OSHA, Dr. David Michaels, said: “These sizable fines reflect the severity and ongoing nature of these hazards. The Postal Service ignored long-established safety standards and knowingly put its workers in harm’s way.” USPS told Post&Parcel yesterday that it is reviewing the OSHA’s concerns.
There was better news for UPS this week after it “exceeded expectations” for Q3. The company announced a global revenue increase of 9.3%, and a 62% operating profit growth. UPS generated $1.5bn in adjusted operating profit, a 62% increase, whilst announcing adjusted diluted earnings per share of $0.93 for Q3 2010, a 69% improvement. On a reported basis, diluted earnings per share were $0.99, an 80% increase over the $0.55 in the same period last year. “UPS once again exceeded expectations due to superior execution across all business units and our ability to provide solutions that creates value for our customers,” said Scott Davis, UPS chairman and CEO. “We continue to deliver significant earnings growth and margin expansion in the current economic environment. This is a true testament to what can be accomplished when you have excellent people, superior service and an unmatched global portfolio,” he added. Based on the company’s performance, UPS has increased its guidance for 2010 adjusted diluted earnings to a range of $3.48 to $3.54 per share, a 51%-to-53% increase over last year.
There was a game of regulation tennis this week in the Netherlands, as TNT, the unions, and the Working Council batted back and forth over redundancy figures. Initially, TNT said it would reduce the number of planned lay-offs, which originally stood at 4,500. Dutch unions and the works council then rejected TNT Post’s offer to reduce compulsory redundancies to 3,500. Speaking to Dutch newspaper Financieele Dagblad, works council chairman Bernard de Vries said: “The total of 3,500 is still too many.” Now TNT said it will save an extra 400 jobs, as well as offering 200 people work temporarily, until the end of 2012.A company spokesman said: “TNT Post believes that the most important preconditions for this reduction will be maximum effort, use of the mobility programme, and conclusion before the end of the year of the procedure for securing the formal opinion of the Works Council. Awaiting the unions’ response, TNT Post considers that this move represents a substantial step, in combination with the social plan already agreed on with the unions.” This game is far from over!
And finally…
With PosTech heading to New Delhi in March, Post&Parcel will be examining trends in technological development throughout the mail and express sector. Do you have an opinion to share? If so, email: [email protected]
