Austrian Post has dropped plans to cut up to 9,000 jobs and pledged no mandatory redundancies in2009 following a high-level political “post summit” yesterday.
CEO Anton Wais told Austrian media following a meeting with the country’s finance andtransport ministers that politicians had promised to reform the postal law in the first half of2009 and create fair conditions for all postal operators after full liberalisation in 2011. Thishad been a key political demand from the postal operator.
This would remove “a major burden” from Austrian Post, Wais declared. In response, theplanned reduction of 9,000 jobs was “off the agenda”, he said, although he added that the workforcewould have to be reduced from the present 23,000 in the future. The CEO had previously warned thatup to two-thirds of the country’s 1,300 post offices could be shut and replaced by externalpartners.
In a statement, the company said any job losses next year would be based on naturalfluctuation, retirements and an existing social plan running August 2008 – December 2009. Itreiterated its strategic commitment to providing nationwide postal services for the Austrianpopulation.
But unions reacted more cautiously to the summit results and said they would await thedecisions of a supervisory board meeting on December 11 which is due to discuss savings measuresfor next year. The postal unions had threatened strikes during the peak Christmas period to try toprevent the cutbacks.
