Tag: Europe

Italian government to revamp publishing sector subsidies

Posted by | Aug 5, 2007 | |

The Italian government has given the preliminary go-ahead to a revamp of subsidies for publishing companies, including hikes in value added tax and less postal benefits, said the Corriere della Sera, citing government officials.

The revamp follows an Italy antitrust authority fact-finding study which recently found subsidies of nearly 500 mln eur for the sectors. Analysts had said they didn’t expect changes to the aid.

In its Saturday edition, the newspaper said Friday’s ministerial meeting approved an increase in VAT to 20 pct for some add-on products sold with publications, from the current 4 pct rate.

The increased VAT will not be applied to add-on books, DVDs and CDs, the newspaper said. The antitrust authority said DVDs and cassettes normally pay 20 pct tax when sold separately.

Another government change is for publishers to pay the full postal tariff on publications sent by post, instead of a reduced rate, with this change being introduced in 2011, it said.

The antitrust authority said these benefits amounted to 299 mln eur in 2006, against 303 mln in 2005, including 174 mln for profit-making companies.

In 2005, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore SpA received 18.9 mln eur, Il Sole 24 Ore SpA, which plans a bourse listing, 17.8 mln, RCS MediaGroup SpA 13.8 mln, and Editoriale L’Espresso SpA 4.7 mln.

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UPS talking pension issues

Posted by | Aug 4, 2007 | |

UPS hopes to resume talks with the Teamsters union toward a new contract soon, a company spokesman said yesterday.

The two sides put talks on hold last month while UPS sought more information about a union pension plan that draws support from UPS and other employers. Teamsters officials have said UPS wants to pull its employees out of the plan.

The union says the company and the troubled Central States Fund have an agreement on “establishing conditions for a potential UPS withdrawal.”

UPS and the Teamsters, which represent about 246,000 workers at the company, have been in contract talks since September. The current contract expires Aug. 1, 2008.

The shipping operates its Worldport hub at Louisville International Airport, and has more than 20,000 employees in the metro area.

The Central States Fund has been an issue because as the number of employers paying into the fund declines, more of a burden falls on UPS.

In May, the union said UPS expressed willingness to jointly manage a new pension plan with the Teamsters as a way to get out of the fund.

The fund raised health-insurance costs and lowered pensions for some future retirees in 2003.

The agreement disclosed last Thursday “does not mean that UPS is free to withdraw from Central States,” the union said on its Web site. Teamsters officials said they would not agree with a UPS withdrawal from the fund unless they are satisfied it would be in the interest of all Teamsters.

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Austrian Post's board to be expanded to five directors

Posted by | Aug 4, 2007 | |

The managing board of Oesterreichische Post AG (Austrian Post) is likely to be expanded to five directors to allow responsibility for the company’s mail and package delivery divisions to be split between two board members, said the Austrian daily Die Presse.

The growing importance of Austrian Post’s packet delivery and marketing services makes it logical to establish this segment at the board level separately from the traditional mail segment, according to unnamed company sources cited by the paper.

The board of directors of the postal services company currently has four members, with one director responsible for both the mail and packet delivery segments.

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Post Office apology for ‘closure’ penalties

Posted by | Aug 4, 2007 | |

The Post Office on Friday apologized for threatening postmasters with the loss of thousands of pounds in compensation if they did not stick to an official script on closures.

The Conservatives accused Royal Mail bosses of using secret police tactics “to demand Maoist conformity to their line”, after the letter, from Sue Huggins, the Post Office’s director of the network change programme, was leaked to the press.

The letter, and an accompanying “lines to take” document, sent to all postmasters, set out official answers to questions customers might ask about 2,500 planned closures. It then went on to threaten recipients with financial penalties, including losing compensation packages, if they did not co-operate.

It warned that undercover staff would be sent around the country to check postmasters’ replies to questions.

On Friday, the Post Office apologized and insisted it would not be carrying out anonymous checks.

The Conservatives seized on the letter’s publication. Alan Duncan, shadow business and enterprise secretary, said: “It is shameful that the government, which is closing thousands of Post Offices, should blackmail hard-working subpostmasters into parroting the political spin of Gordon Brown to customers.”

George Thomson, general secretary of the National Federation of Sub-postmasters, said it accepted the letter had been “an error of judgement” by the Post Office.

Plans to close 2,500 post offices were announced by the government in May after Alistair Darling, then trade and industry secretary, said that the network could not be sustained with losses at GBP 4 m a week.

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TNT weighs up 'final mile' service

Posted by | Aug 3, 2007 | |

Mail operator TNT has said it will decide in the next year whether to take on Royal Mail by launching a ‘final mile’ delivery service in the UK.

The service would focus on bulk mail such as direct mail. Dutch firm TNT’s planned decision over whether to launch the service has been accelerated by the ongoing strike action at Royal Mail.

TNT has already run trials of a final-mile service in Manchester and Glasgow, and is now looking at a national network.

Chief executive Peter Bakker said: ‘We expect a decision by TNT over the next 12 months on setting up this activity.’

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