Moves to settle An Post’s pay freeze have stalled when management declined to meet Labour Relations Commission financial assessors while postal workers in Drogheda and Tuam continue with unofficial industrial action.
Read MoreThe government is considering having the envisioned postal savings bank set up a main branch in every prefecture in Japan, government sources told Kyodo News on Sunday.
The 47 core branches would be in charge of supervising loan application examinations at all local post offices following the planned privatisation of Japan Post, the sources said.
The postal savings bank is one of four units to be placed under a holding company when Japan Post is split up in April 2007 initiating a 10-year transitional period for privatisation.
The four units will respectively take charge of mail services, postal savings, postal life insurance and over-the-counter services. The over-the-counter services unit will take over the operation of the 24,700 post offices across the nation.
Read MoreHow to reward staff. How to support them. How to retain them when the pool of young talent is declining all the time. These are just some of the issues faced by human resources departments every day. Royal Mail, one of Britain’s largest employers, confronts all these issues and more in its struggle to fight off increasing competition for postal services. This week, the state-owned organisation found itself in controversial territory after directors reintroduced a scheme rewarding good attendance by postal workers with prizes of cars and holiday vouchers. Unions said the scheme was a gimmick. Royal Mail, on the other hand, argued it was a genuine effort to boost staff commitment and morale.
Read MoreThe French post office, La Poste, has entered into a framework agreement to provide financial support for the 1,800 post offices in France which are operated by local authorities. The deal, which has been concluded after more than a decade of talks, doubles the amount paid to municipalities (900 euros) to run post offices in what are termed sensitive rural or urban areas and offices under the control of more than one local authority. In return, the post office in question must be open for 60hrs a month.
Read MoreThe tenet that the customer is always right does not seem to have permeated the home delivery sphere, with many packages turning up at unspecified, inconvenient times. But with new entrants raising standards, the old school may be forced to mend its ways.
Home shopping may be big business, but it is no longer the sole domain of big businesses, with everyone from Amazon to the local corner shop now offering an online or catalogue shopping experience. But while the rest of the retail world has been moving speedily towards home shopping solutions, it would seem that most delivery companies have been standing still.
Home shopping exists to cater for consumers who are too busy to visit the high street, so it should come as no surprise that they may not be able to wait at home all day to receive a package.
Read MoreAn Post is still seeking up to 1,500 redundancies, a price rise of 25 per cent and further work practice changes despite announcing a pretax profit for 2004 of EUR7 million yesterday.
Donal Curtin, the company’s chief executive, said An Post was “not out of the woods yet”. He said an increase in the price of a stamp from 48 to 60 cent would help the company to complete its rescue plan.
“Despite the success of strict control measures, the An Post cost base remains too high and substantial cuts are essential through headcount reductions, efficiencies, work practice changes and the implementation of the automation agreement,” he said.
Read MoreThe French mall service provider La Poste wants to invest up to EUR 1 billion in the global expansion of its parcel subsidiary GeoPost, which operates under the brand name DPD. A competitive global network for international parcel services is to be created by take-overs, joint ventures and cooperations. The man is forcing the pace. Claude Béglé, CEO of GeoPost International Management & Development GmbH, lists the targets for GeoPost and DPD for 2005 in one quick breath. The most important ones are: to promote strong growth of sales and earnings, the introduction of a new core product for Europe, the expansion of warehouse capacities in the hub and above all the rapid intercontinental enhancement of the DPD network. The bill for the additional expansion in Europe and the remainder of the world could cost as much as EUR 1 billion in the coming years, said the Swiss national at a press conference in Frankfurt am Main (Germany).
Read MoreGerman post operator Deutsche Post plans to halve to 500 the number of small branches it previously marked for closure, company’s spokesman Juergen Blohm said.
Previously, Deutsche Post intended to reduce the number of its branches, operated either by the company or through agencies, to 12,000 from currently 13,000. After protests from the affected parties, however, the company reconsidered and halved the number of the planned closures.
The Association of Post Agencies, Pagd, accused Deutsche Post of working with the 7,500 post agencies in an authoritarian manner, saying that it has reduced the wages of part-time employees in the post agencies to 300 euro (USD390), below the negotiated monthly sum, despite the registered 10 pct turnover growth.
Furthermore, Pagd’s chairman Torsten Modery said Deutsche Post has provided misleading information regarding the number of its customers to the agencies operating post offices, and thus compromised their economic efficiency evaluations.
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