Tag: Domestic

Royal Mail is being pushed too hard

Posted by | Sep 12, 2007 | |

With regard to recent industrial action by Royal Mail postal workers, although this probably lost the company some business, I think it needs to be seen in a wider context than a pay rise.

The Blair government supposedly gained agreement for a European free market with mail services but this is not being complied with by other European countries.

Successive governments have creamed off money from the Royal Mail rather than allowing this to be used for modernization.

The present management has proposed a worker shareholder partnership but the Government has refused it.

While other mail firms can cherry pick the more lucrative business deals leaving Royal Mail with the least profitable ones, yet the Government insists on a flat rate stamp regardless of distance.

Although postal workers deliver for rival businesses there is no reciprocal arrangement. The situation is therefore not a “level playing field”.

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EU court rejects courier complaint on French Aid

Posted by | Sep 12, 2007 | |

A European Union court Wednesday rejected complaints from international courier companies who claimed that French state-owned postal services company La Poste unfairly subsidizes its own courier express operation.

The ruling is part of a larger struggle that sees E.U. antitrust authorities and private companies trying to pry open Europe’s monopoly-controlled postal markets while still respecting E.U. rules that allow for government funding of national postal companies serving unprofitable areas. La Poste is one such company.

The case goes back to 1990, when the Union Francaise de L’Express or Ufex, Deutsche Post AG’s, DHL International, FedEx Corp’s Federal Express International France SNC and Service CRIE all complained to E.U. competition authorities that La Poste unit Societe Francaise de Messagerie Internationale – now Chronopost – was receiving unfair competitive advantages over the rest through its state-funded parent company. These alleged advantages include receiving logistical and commercial assistance on “unusually favorable terms.”

The European Commission rejected this complaint, saying that since the matter concerned competition on the French market, it wasn’t an E.U. matter. The courier companies tried to have this decision overturned, but were spurned again in 2004 when their arguments were once again rejected.

The courier companies then went to Europe’s second-highest court, the Court of First Instance, to try and have the commission’s decision annulled. The court Wednesday ruled simply that the commission’s initial decision was correct.

The courier companies may now appeal the ruling to Europe’s highest court, the Court of High Justice.

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Japan: Postal privatization blueprint approved

Posted by | Sep 12, 2007 | |

The government has given the green light to a blueprint submitted earlier this year by Japan Post Corp. for privatizing postal services.

Monday’s approval was the government’s final endorsement of the 10-year privatization process beginning Oct. 1, when postal services will be split into four stock firms — savings, insurance, mail and over-the-counter services — under Japan Post, which will turn into their holding company.

The blueprint, submitted to the government in late April, includes the list of assets and employees Japan Post will take over from the public postal corporation that currently runs postal operations.

The blueprint outlines some new businesses planned for the privatized entities. Among them is letting the postal savings bank act as a sales agent for regional banks for their housing-loan products.

The bank and life insurance industries have voiced concerns about the postal financial institutions expanding operations, saying they could threaten them.

Masayuki Oku, chairman of the Japanese Bankers Association, released a statement Monday saying he regrets that the approved blueprint “fails to contain any specific plan for scaling down postal savings.”

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Malta Post: Third past the post

Posted by | Sep 12, 2007 | |

Malta has just joined Germany and the Netherlands as the third EU member state to fully privatise the postal service.

Privatization has always been something of a hot potato in Malta: more so in the case of the national postal service, whose previous partial privatization resulted in a nosedive in service standards and a disaster for consumers.

So it is surprising that support for the company’s total privatization now comes from the same trade union which in the past had wrestled with former major shareholders, New Zealand company Transend.

Union Haddiema Maqghudin general secretary Gejtu Vella thinks that the total privatization of MaltaPost will bring to an end a “10-year trauma” for postal workers.

Vella regrets that MaltaPost had to pass from a turbulent decade in which it was first turned in to a public company in the mid 1990s, only to revert to a government department in 1998 and to be partially privatized in 2002 when New Zealend state company Transend bought an equity share.

The UHM, which went on the warpath when Transend tried to downsize the number of postal workers, is satisfied by the job guarantee given by Maltapost’s new owners. Maltapost has now promised not to dismiss any worker except for disciplinary proceedures and normal retirement.

Vella attributes the difficulties facing the postal sector worldwide to the arrival of the internet.

Gejtu Vella is also confident that the involvement of a reputable bank will ensure that the new company will survive the European-wide liberalization of the sector in 2010.

Although the EU commission wants the sector to be liberalized by that date, the EU does not impose the privatization of postal services, which are still deemed an essential service.

Postal services in Europe remain largely in public hands, although there has been a movement towards the liberalization of these services with the United Kingdom and social democratic Sweden taking the lead.

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Brazilian government looks at opening capital of the Postal Service

Posted by | Sep 12, 2007 | |

The Brazilian Ministry of Communications is studying the opening of the capital of the national Postal Services as an alternative for modernizing and expanding the company, as informed today (12 september) by the minister of Communications, Hélio Costa.

The minister submitted today to the minister of Finance, Guido Mantega, the proposal for expansion of the Postal Service, of which, according to him, president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was already aware.

According to the minister, the establishment of a large logistics company, linked to the state-owned one, would be another alternative for catering to the “huge demand” in the order delivery market. “We are forecasting an increase of over 100 pct for next year. Either the Postal Services will prepare itself, or it will end up losing this market,” he stated.

Another proposal would be the restructuring of the Postal Bank, which currently functions in partnership with privately owned bank Bradesco. According to Hélio Costa, the bank has 5,200 branches, around 5,000 accounts are opened per day, and 10 billion Brazilian reais (USD 5.1 billion) are deposited.

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