Postal workers stepped up their conflict with the Royal Mail yesterday, asking for an immediate pay rise of 8%.
The Royal Mail has offered postmen and women a 14.5% increase over 18 months, which it says would bring the weekly wage up to £300.
But the extra money is linked to changes in working practices, including altered shifts and productivity targets, and the Communication Workers’ Union claims the real rise only equates to 3% a year.
Read MoreTo anyone stringing together the words “post offices” and “closings,” postal officials have special instructions: Handle With Care.
Congress will begin examining the U.S. Postal Service’s USD92 billion hole next month, led by Maine U.S. Sen. Susan Collins.
No one knows what the impact on the rest of the nation will be. But if a presidential commission’s suggestions to make the service “smaller and stronger” are followed, clearly some facilities, somewhere, will close.
Although such a move may be years away, postal officials are already skittish about the public panicking over the potential of their local post office closing before all the facts are out.
Read MoreThe imminent expansion of financial services offered by French post office La Poste continues to ruffle the feathers of the country’s more established banking players. Earlier this month, Societe Generale chairman Daniel Bouton said that he could see “no economic sense” in permitting La Poste to broaden its range of banking products. His remarks follow similar comments made earlier this year by Michel Pebereau, chairman of BNP Paribas. Speaking on French radio, Pebereau said that he had urged the French authorities not to “turn the French banking sector upside down” by adding another competitor to an already crowded marketplace. La Poste is about to sign a new five-year operating agreement with the French Finance Ministry, which – if ratified – will allow it to offer customers consumer credit and non-life insurance products – areas that have previously been off-limits. A decision is expected later this year.
Read MoreDeutsche Post chairman Klaus Zumwinkel said in a magazine interview released Wednesday that he expects the semi-public German postal authority to be fully privatised within the next four years.
“I could well imagine the state cutting its stake to zero by 2007,” the expected date for the full liberalisation of letter-delivery services throughout the whole of Europe, Zumwinkel told the latest edition of the fortnightly magazine Capital.
Read MoreThe U.S. Postal Service’s inspector general has resigned after members of Congress and a government report questioned her personnel practices and her spending for team-building staff retreats.
Postal Inspector General Karla Corcoran, whose office is supposed to guard against fraud, waste and abuse, “has expressed her intention to retire immediately,” the governors of the Postal Service announced.
Corcoran conducted retreats where her employees had to dress up in costumes, participate in mock trials and tape testimonials for the inspector general.
Corcoran was unavailable for comment, her office said.
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