Finnish postal operator Posti has significantly reduced the number of likely job losses in a new cost savings programme from up to 860 jobs down to only 181 following negotiations with unions.
The company announced the original figure at the start of February when it warned of a continuing revenue fall this year due to declining mail volumes.
But this number was reduced to 181 in an agreement with unions covering delivery operations, sales and customer service, and group and operations administration (with the exception of south-eastern Finland). The concluded negotiations will reduce the number of jobs by 682, with a maximum of 181 layoffs. Moreover, 198 employees will be moved to part-time jobs.
As a responsible employer, Posti said it is actively involved in supporting its personnel in the current changing situation in the postal industry. All dismissed persons have access to the Uusi Polku program, which offers training and support for job seeking, retraining, or becoming an entrepreneur.
"We are pleased that we can implement the required changes with fewer personnel reductions than expected. We managed to reduce the number of layoffs through the Uusi polku (New Path) support program and different voluntary and retirement arrangements," explained Jaana Jokinen, Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Posti.
The Operations unit's negotiations concerning basic delivery were concluded on March 16, 2016, with the exception of south-eastern Finland. The units in south-eastern Finland are in the process of testing new delivery technology and intend to introduce a model that involves centralizing different Posti services in distribution terminals. In the cooperation negotiations in south-eastern Finland, the need for personnel reductions is a maximum of 95 permanent employees. Over half of the reductions can be handled through voluntary solutions. The target group comprises 390 people.
"The testing period needs to be sufficiently long in order to offer a proper overall understanding of the effects of using the delivery technology. This is why the cooperation negotiations in south-eastern Finland are to be concluded later. The negotiations are estimated to be concluded in April," says Yrjö Eskola, Vice President, Operations.
The original target group at the beginning of the negotiations was 7,600 permanent employees in the whole country. At the end of the year, Posti had 21,598 employees.
The changes did not concern Posti's other services, such as early-morning newspaper delivery, mail sorting in postal centres and logistics centres, parcel, freight, and warehousing services or Posti's service point network (postal outlets, Parcel Points, and pickup points).
Posti intends to continue delivering different products on all weekdays: newspapers seven days a week, parcels six days a week, and other mail five days a week. However, the delivery service time will be extended toward the evening. In addition to letters, publications, advertisements and parcels, Posti can more flexibly home deliver goods purchased from an online store, food bags, and other local logistics services.
In 2015, the fall in delivery volumes reduced Posti's turnover by some €75 million and this year the loss in net sales is expected to be about the same. Last year, the number of delivered letters and other addressed shipments decreased by 102 million (-8%) from the previous year.
