Tag: Europe

Royal Mail continues to target absenteeism

Posted by | Jul 18, 2008 | |

After sickness levels reached almost 6.5 pct of the entire workforce in 2004, Royal Mail has continued to concentrate on bringing levels of absenteeism down to acceptable levels.

Whilst the tactics used by Royal Mail to get employees back into work quickly have sometimes come in for criticism, absenteeism had reached such extraordinary proportions; it had little choice but to tackle the problem from all sides. Now employees can expect phone calls at home as well as medical assesments independent of their own GP. At one point, around 10,000 workers out of a total of 170,000, were off work.

Royal Mail also introduced incentives of prize draws for staff that had good attendance records but has in more recent years tried to persuade some of it’s tobacco-hooked employees to kick the habit after it made working areas smoke-free. Time taken out for ‘fag breaks’ is said to lose employers a significant amount of money as well as contributing to poor health and fitness in employees.

This year, Royal Mail is sending a 13.6-metre mobile training vehicle to 34 Royal Mail depots to promote health & safety awareness. Staff will have access to a range of services, based around shift patterns. Despite the costs involved in tacking absenteeism, Royal Mail said it was still significantly less than money lost through time taken off by employees.

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Commission declares aid to Poste Italiane unlawful and requires recovery

Posted by | Jul 17, 2008 | |

The European Commission has declared unlawful under EC Treaty state aid rules an aid granted to Poste Italiane in the form of excessive renumeration paid by the Italian Treasury for funds collected from Poste Italiane’s customers’ current accounts and deposited with the Treasury as of 2005. Italy did not notify the scheme to the Commission before its implementation so that the aid unlawfully granted must be recovered from Poste Italiane. The Commission’s in-depth investigation, opened in September 2006 (found that the interest rates from the Italian Treasury unduly favoured Poste Italiane. This unlawful aid is liable to give Poste Italiane an unfair advantage over its competitors on the liberalised postal and financial markets in Italy. The scheme which led to this benefit to Poste Italiane was repealed in the Italian budgetary law of 2007.

Poste Italiane was legally obliged to deposit the funds collected from customers’ current accounts with the Italian Treasury.

The Commission’s investigation revealed that the interest rates paid by the Treasury to Poste Italiane from 2005 onwards are:

– higher than what would have been obtained from a private borrower and
– higher than what Poste Italiane would have obtained if it had been free to invest the money on the market.

The Commission concluded that these higher interest rates, which do not conform to market conditions, provided an economic advantage in favour of Poste Italiane and distorted competition and trade within the Single Market.

The Italian budgetary law for 2007 abolished the legal obligation to deposit the funds collected on postal current accounts of private customers with the Treasury and provides that these funds are invested by Poste Italiane in euro area government bonds. The interest paid for these bonds do not contain any state aid as they do not entail any selective advantage.

The non-confidential version of the decision will be made available under the case number C 42/2006 in the State aid Register on the DG Competition website once any confidentiality issues have been resolved. New publications of state aid decisions on the internet and in the Official Journal are listed in the State aid Weekly e-News.

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Deutsche Bank unlikely to let Postbank get away

Posted by | Jul 17, 2008 | |

After missing out on one rare opportunity to expand in its domestic market, Deutsche Bank is unlikely to let another chance go begging, analysts believe.

Until recently, three retail banking operations were on the block in Germany creating an unprecedented opportunity for consolidation in a market dominated by state-owned savings banks.

That leaves Deutsche Postbank and the Dresdner Bank unit of Allianz (as the remaining options for any local player looking to expand.

Dresdner has long been linked to a deal with Commerzbank talks between the two have reportedly been stepped up in recent weeks, leaving Postbank as Deutsche Bank’s likely best bet for growth.

Deutsche Bank has performed better than many of its European rival in the credit crunch, still CEO Josef Ackermann is under pressure to diversify away from investment banking and build up its retail banking arm.

Ackermann has indicated Deutsche Bank, Germany’s biggest bank, is interested, saying back in February he would be willing to discuss a deal. But the question of price has been seen as a potential sticking point.

“Market rumors indicate Deutsche Bank has offered eight or nine billion euros (USD 12.7 billion to USD14.3 billion) for Postbank, while Deutsche Post is asking for at least 10 billion euros,” Koagne said.

Natixis’ Koagne said Deutsche Post could also be willing to lower its demands now that there are few other potential bidders.
That’s especially true since Postbank’s capitalization appears weak compared with its European rivals, raising the threat it would have to seek fresh capital if Deutsche Post decides to wait a while before selling, he added.

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Correos' Alicante 'ASC' is already working at full capacity

Posted by | Jul 17, 2008 | |

Correos has opened the Alicante Automated Sorting Centre (ASC). With its commissioning, the 17 ASC’s planned in the postal company’s Automation Plan are up and running. The company has already started to organise the creation of a new ASC in Ciudad Real to improve its automated mail and parcel sorting centre network.
On 30 June, the Alicante ASC started to run experimentally and from yesterday onwards it will be running at full capacity. It is now sorting 1.5 million mail deliveries a day: 40,000 per hour in each standard mail sorting machine, and 15,000 per hour in the non-standard mail sorting machine. Its commissioning will improve the quality of the postal service, and make delivery work easier for the more than 800 postmen and women in the province of Alicante and the Region of Murcia.
The operation of this ASC allows for more than 80 pct of mail distributed in Alicante and Murcia with the subsequent improvement in delivery times.
Correos has invested EUR 36.34 million in the Alicante ASC.
This centre, with a built surface area of over 17,000 m2, has a staff of 170 workers in three shifts (mornings, evenings and nights) with 13 loading bays for lorries and 14 for vans.
The commissioning of this new centre concludes CORREOS’ Automation Plan and is in line with the company’s set of actions aimed at modernising, extending and renovating its logistics, distribution and customer service centre network. All of this is designed to offer citizens and businesses more functional installations equipped with technological resources and guaranteeing a postal service with the optimum quality, efficiency and accessibility.

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Poste Italiane Interest Ruled Anti-Competitive

Posted by | Jul 17, 2008 | |

Under EU rules that prohibit state aid to postal operators that would give that operator an unfair commercial advantage, Poste Italiane has been ordered to repay an undisclosed sum.

The European Commission found that interest rates paid by the Italian Treasury to Poste Italiane from 2005 to 2007 on Poste Italiane current accounts, was higher than if they had been obtained commercially, giving Poste Italiane an unfair advantage over its competitors and that Italy did not notify the EC of its intentions.

Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for Competition said that it was essential that there remained a level playing field among competitors and that the illegal aid given to Poste Italiane must be recovered under EC rules.

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