Mail in France is set for further disruption this week as postal workers strike in scores ofsorting centres across the country. They are protesting about changes in working hours which, they
say, will see them performing more night shifts without pay increases.Unions say the strike will affect up to 50 centres – including major facilities in Bordeaux,Lyon, Toulouse and Rouen – while La Poste management reports that the action, which has increasedsince it began sporadically in October, will hit between 25 and 35.
La Poste, while not commenting officially, is reported by French media as admitting that thestrikes are proving “very disruptive”, although that their effect is “limited”.
Employees are protesting against plans to change working hours which they say would increasethe number of night shifts worked and are demanding a raise in the rate of additional pay for nightshifts, from EUR 1,22 to EUR 3 an hour.
Staff employed under private sector law are striking for one hour a night throughout thefestive period, while those with civil servant status take action on Friday nights, according toFrench business newspaper Les Echos.
A Parisian court, however, threw out a move by the Sud-PTT trade union trying to stop LaPoste from operating the sorting centres on Sundays. The union had claimed that the French postaloperator was running the centres on Sundays to offset the affects of the night-shift strikes.
La Poste said it was “satisfied” with the court’s decision. “We usually open the sortingcentres (on Sundays) at this time of year when the activity is traditionally strong,” a spokesmansaid.
La Poste is not the only national postal operator to be hit by industrial action in itssorting centres. Portuguese postal workers vowed last week to continue their campaign againstpossible job losses in sorting centres amid outsourcing of large volume accounts by CTT Correios.
