Tag: Republic of Ireland

Communications minister Noel Dempsey has warned management and workers at An Post that the company will be wiped out” by competition unless it is dramatically reformed soon. The reality of this, and people have to grasp it, is that in 2009we will have a fully liberalised market, Dempsey said last week. And if we’ve a fully liberalised market, An Post as it exists today will be wiped out within, I would say, six months. Dempsey was blunt in his warnings to An Post, which has been beset by tensions between workers and management over a restructuring and rationalisation plan.

An Post is in deep trouble, and at least one former member of its board expects its plight to worsen. In his resignation letter, Paul Kavanagh made it clear who he thinks must take the blame. The company needs to modernise. The private sector is cutting into the traditional business and will go on doing so. An Post hopes for a future in technology and financial services, not junk mail and cards – which in the resigning director’s view would leave it “in a catastrophic position”. Mr Kavanagh says that “certain elements” (meaning the trade unions) “cynically disrupt, delay and frustrate all efforts.” If the union agenda prevails, it will result “in far greater downsizing and redundancies in the future.”

Unions at An Post claim talks on a new partnership deal could be in jeopardy unless the company is forced to pay staff the full terms of Sustaining Progress.
With talks on a new national agreement expected to begin in the autumn, staff and pensioners at An Post are still awaiting pay rises due since November 2003.
Independent assessors appointed by the Labour Relations Commission recently recommended a 5 per cent increase, backdated to January 1st. This was accepted by the company and the increase is to be paid to all staff at the end of the month. Unions, however, rejected the assessors’ report and are continuing to seek payment of the full 8.5 per cent increase outstanding under the terms of Sustaining Progress. An Post, which announced a EUR7 million profit last year after posting substantial losses in the previous two years, pleaded inability to pay the increase.