French national postal operator Groupe La Poste has signed a public service contract with theFrench government for the time period 2008-2012 confirming the company’s commitment towards four
basic service areas and preparing it for total postal liberalisation in 2011.The contract, signed by La Poste president Jean-Paul Bailly and the Minister for EconomicAffairs Christine Lagarde among others, follows the announcement of possible future partialprivatisation of La Poste in 2009 with the government remaining the majority shareholder of thecompany.
With the new agreement, the public postal operator expects to calm the French unionsregarding the modification of the company’s legal structure as they have always strongly opposedopening up La Poste to private investors.
The four main service areas stipulated in the agreement include postal services,transportation and distribution of press, accessibility of banking services for as many clients aspossible and nationwide coverage of postal service points.
The l postal services mentioned in the contract comprise distribution and delivery of mail 6days a week with the same tariffs all over France. In addition, the new deal defines some targetsfor the group such as distributing 83% of all letters the next-day in 2008. The quantity shouldrise to 84% in 2009 and 85% in 2010.
The accessibility of banking services means that every customer has the right to open anaccount at the postal bank of the company, disregarding the financial resources of the customer.
Nationwide coverage of postal service points guarantees the accessibility of La Poste servicepoints all over France, even in the remotest regions of the country maintaining 17.000 servicepoints nationwide. According to the corresponding law, La Poste has to guarantee that no more than10% of the population in any French department will be more than 5 km away, or at more than 20minutes distance by car, from a post office.
French trade unions are already preoccupied with the uncertainty around the financing of theplan since neither the cost of the postal distribution service nor the method of financing has beenoutlined in the contract.
The union Sud-PTT expressed its disappointment after the contract was signed saying that itwould “pave the way for privatisation of the public operator”.
“We would have expected further details about the scope of the responsibilities regarding thepublic service and its financing which is controversial”, the union commented in a press releaseadding that a meeting with other unions is planned for 2 September to decide on first possiblestrikes of postal workers. Sud-PTT expects the strikes to go beyond the company’s bordersconsidering a meeting between union, political parties and associations.
