Tag: Israel Post

Postal rates rise; union negotiates over its future

Posted by | Nov 1, 2007 | |

The cost of a regular stamp goes up today from NIS 1.50 to NIS 1.55. Bulk mail rates have dropped a bit, but most of the 78 different postal charges have increased significantly.

Few of the changes made by the Communications Ministry, however, have found favor with Israel Postal Company workers who have been threatening a strike but hope that negotiations with management over the next few days will lead to a compromise.

The union has been struggling with the ministry for a year and a half, demanding that bulk mail rates be cut significantly to win customers away from private entrepreneurs who are offer cheap but profitable services in the Dan Region, while the Postal Company has to provide services throughout the country, including in the periphery, where services operate at a loss.

The union says Communications Minister Ariel Attias has yet to produce a general license setting down what services the Postal Company – which was established last year in place of the Postal Authority – may offer. The union also wants a “security net” for the employees, 450 of whom have been sent on early pension in the last three years. The workers claim management wants to fire hundreds more in the next two years. The union is also demanding that management allow the company to offer many more financial and marketing services to make up for the loss of income from their hoped-for significant reduction in mass mailing rates.

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Israel Post: Rate hike 'premature,' Postal Co. claims

Posted by | Sep 4, 2007 | |

Although the finance and communications minister signed and announced a document Monday that supposedly raises postal rates, the Israel Postal Company said it was “premature as discussions on new services and rates have not yet been concluded.”

The Treasury did not say what the new rates would be, but stated that when they come into effect, the agreement would constitute “the final stage in significant reform carried out in the postal sector in recent years.”

The Israel Postal Company, which until last year was a state authority under direct control by the Communications Ministry, is facing a growing amount of competition due to loss of its monopoly powers. In compensation, it is being allowed to offer additional services to compete with the private market.

The Postal Company spokeswoman said discussions of the general license, which empowers the company to offer new services, have not yet concluded.

“There are still some open issues. Although there is progress in the negotiations, the final form of the license has not yet been agreed upon,” she said. “We are sorry that the notice of a signing was released unilaterally, without consulting the Postal Company. We have been working without a general license since the company was established, a problem that prevents the company from planning its future policy and to improve its services to the public,” she added.

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Israel Postal Company to provide e-mail services

Posted by | Aug 31, 2007 | |

The Israel Postal Company will shortly be competing in the electronic arena to provide e-mail boxes and services to customers, if not in other areas controlled by the online giants.

The postal service’s motivation is simple: It must prepare for an era when regular mail, featuring envelopes and a stamp, disappears altogether and is replaced by electronic communications.

Once an authority and converted a year and a half ago into a government company, the Postal Company is going high-tech. It isn’t planning to turn into an Internet company per se, just to provide e-mail boxes and services, according to an announcement from the Communications Ministry yesterday.

The communication states that Communications Minister Ariel Atias feels that the Postal Company must become financially stronger by expanding its range of services.

His final approval for expansion into e-mail is expected shortly.

In fact, the Postal Company would simply become part of a global trend in which post offices worldwide are modernizing by providing electronic mail services to complement “snail mail” – that olden form of stamped letter wending its way through sleet or sandstorm on horse, tank, camel, whatever.

At present, e-mail services are controlled entirely by Internet service providers.

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Atias, Treasury spar over Postal Bank direction

Posted by | Aug 2, 2007 | |

“To claim that the Postal Bank will compete against Bank Hapoalim and Bank Leumi is a big mistake, and I won’t let it happen. Such a move would turn an angel into a demon, which instead of helping Israel Post Company Ltd., will harm it,” said Minister of Communications Ariel Atias in response to the decision to transfer supervision of the Postal Bank to the Bank of Israel Banking Supervision Department as part of the Postal Bank’s privatization.

The privatization of Israel Post, including the Postal Bank, should move forward quickly now that a new minister of finance and Government Companies Authority director general have been appointed, and the issue has been included in the 2008 economic arrangements bill. However, Atias opposes losing control of the Postal Bank on the grounds that Israel Post is not ready for the privatization. He claims that postal services would become secondary to banking services that the Postal Bank is due to provide in the future.

Atias said, “The Postal Bank is supposed to serve the poor and middle class, not provide credit to manufacturers and commercial companies. The Ministry of Finance wants to turn it into a large bank, which is a mistake.”

The Bank of Israel supports the Ministry of Finance, and believes that the Postal Bank should be turned into a regular banking corporation as part of the privatization of Israel Post. Supervisor of Banks Rony Hizkiyahu has made turning the Postal Bank into a commercial bank conditional on having a minimum shareholders’ equity of NIS 150 million and transferring supervision of the Postal Bank to the Bank of Israel.

The Government Companies Authority proposes privatizing Israel Post in two stages. In the first stage, 49 pct of the company will be sold in an IPO on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) by May 31, 2008. Later, the rest of the company will be sold to a strategic investor.

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Postal strike postponed but sanctions continue

Posted by | Jul 2, 2007 | |

The Israel Postal Company workers union decided at the last moment to postpone a general strike planned for last Thursday morning after the government decided to delay the July 1 new rate schedule for bulk mailings.

Nevertheless, sanctions continue, with mail delivery slowed, post offices closing at 3 p.m. and postal clerks refusing to accept payments to the government register vehicle ownership or dispatch diplomatic mail.

Matriculation exams that are stored in Postal Company facilities are being distributed, as are National Insurance Institute allotments.

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