La Poste has announced the recruitment of 4,000 new employees this year which means asignificant increase compared to 2,900 staff hired in 2010.
The announcement was made yesterday by Georges Lefebre, Director Human Resources and SocialRelations, at a meeting with the French postal unions, as part of the company’s commitment tostrengthen its competences in different areas. These include health and work safety (currently1,000 staff) with more nurses and company physicians to be employed. In addition, the company wantsto hire young graduates and management staff for its human resources department.
As part of the 4,000 new jobs, the French postal operator wants to recruit 2,500 alternate staffincluding postmen and counter workers.
At the meeting with the unions, La Poste stressed its commitment to enhancing social dialogue ata local level. Therefore, the French postal operator wants to appoint local delegates to define andimplement projects related in particular to working life.
“It is especially about contributing to a better balance of professional and private life withthe development of child care support, social housing and catering,” the company said in astatement.
In response to the announced recruitments, Régis Blanchot from the trade union Sud-PTT expressedscepticism: “For us, the only acceptable thing today would be to replace all the posts that havebeen cut.” According to the union’s estimations, 13,800 jobs were shed in 2010 and the pace for2011 seemed similar. “It shouldn’t be talked about recruitment for alternate contracts maskingprecarious work,” Blanchot added.
Colette Duynslaeger, general secretary of the postal union CGT, showed herself more optimistic. “ This announcement which is due to the fact that La Poste’s results were less disastrous thanexpected is good news.” But she added: “We have to see under which conditions these recruitmentswill occur and to ensure that they will be effectively allocated to the sectors which need them themost.”
La Poste employs more than 287,000 staff and counts 17,000 service points.
