The Austrian coalition government today agreed on a new postal law designed to fully open thepostal market on January 1, 2011, secure the universal service and the post office network, avoid
wage-dumping and offer new entrants a level playing-field. But Austrian Post criticised the draftlaw as “favouring” foreign competitors.The cabinet approved the draft law following a final round of negotiations between the rulingSocial Democrats and Christian Democrats yesterday. Under the draft law, the Austrian postal marketwill be fully opened as of January 1, 2011, in line with the European Union third postal directive.
A minimum of 1,650 postal retail outlets throughout Austria will be guaranteed and thenationwide provision of postal services will be secured, the Austrian infrastructure ministryannounced. This will be 150 retail outlets more than the present figure of 1,500 locations, andAustrian Post will have to replace any post office or retail partner which closes.
Austrian Post will be the designated universal service provider. A ‘Universal Service Fund’will be set up to compensate Austrian Post for the financial disadvantages of having to provide theuniversal postal service in thinly-populated areas. All licensed postal operators, includingAustrian Post, will have to provide contributions to this fund as a proportion of their marketshare.
There will be fair employment conditions for staff of new licensed market entrants who willhave to be employed under the relevant collective pay agreement. This will ensure fair conditionsfor all market players in the future liberalised market and provide planning certainty for bothAustrian Post and other postal operators, the ministry said.
In addition, all licensed postal operators will be entitled to deliver to the large number ofcollective mailboxes located in apartment blocks and other private addresses. The present closedboxes accessible only to Austrian Post staff will be replaced.
“Everyone can be satisfied with this result,” declared infrastructure minister Doris Bures. “With the planned minimum figure of 1,650 retail outlets, the service will even be extended comparedto today. This means comprehensive coverage at a very high level. This is good for the populationand for the Austrian economy. And we have ensured that there will be fair conditions for workers inthe industry, since wage-dumping cannot be an instrument in fair competition,” she added.
But in response, Austrian Post declared the draft law would make it more difficult to providethe universal service, would favour ‘cherry-pickers’ and would increase its costs on a one-sidedbasis. The law would help competitors such as Deutsche Post/DHL, France’s La Poste, Royal Mail andTNT to offer postal services only in profitable highly-populated areas, leaving Austrian Post tooperate in unprofitable rural areas, it stated.
“The government proposal for the postal market law favours foreign postal groups which enterthe Austrian postal market,” said CEO Rudolf Jettmar. “The continued provision of the nationwideuniversal service will create enormous challenges for Austrian Post.”
In particular, Austrian Post criticised the plan for it to finance the bulk of the UniversalService Fund and to bear the cost of installing new collective mailboxes accessible to alloperators. Jettmar called on Austrian MPs to ensure that the financial aspects of the law wouldenable it to provide the universal service instead of favouring “the cherry-picker model of foreignpostal groups”.
The postal incumbent said, however, that the obligation to maintain 1,650 retail outlets was “ in order” as long as it was free to decide whether to operate a post office or via a privateretail partner.
