AN POST is to lay off over 1,300 workers over the next three years in a cost-cutting plan due to start next month.
The first phase of the plan will see 250 headquarters workers in Dublin take voluntary redundancy from January. About 450 staff have received letters seeking expressions of interest in recent days.
The company says it has been forced to cut costs and jobs in advance of the full liberalisation of the postal market due to start in 2011. A fall of 10 per cent in postal volumes this year has also contributed to An Post’s worsening financial situation.
The job cuts had been expected because of deregulation and the economic downturn but are more severe than originally anticipated. Last September, it was reported that An Post would cut about 1,000 jobs from its workforce.
Now it has emerged that, in total, 1,375 full-time equivalents from an overall workforce of 10,000 are expected to leave under the plan, which has been agreed with the company’s four main unions.
The company says staff numbers were already reducing as a result of change programmes and automation, with a loss of 351 employees in the last year alone.
A spokeswoman said all redundancies would be voluntary, but cuts would be made in all areas of An Post’s business and at all levels, including headquarters, collection, retail and processing.
Under the terms of the redundancy package agreed with the unions, departing workers will receive nine weeks’ pay per year of service, up to a maximum of 3½ years’ pay. A strong uptake is anticipated.
While An Post already faces competition from private sector companies in over 60 per cent of its areas of business, full liberalisation of postal markets across the EU from January 2011 will see competition in the domestic postal sector for the first time.
The spokeswoman said declining mail volumes was a worldwide phenomenon. However, the severity of the economic downturn in Ireland had caused mail volumes to fall more steeply than expected, and further decreases are predicted for next year.
Not all parts of the business have been equally affected, she said, and the growth of online shopping, in particular, had helped boost mail and parcel volumes.
Last week, An Post took a majority stake in the Gift Voucher Shop (GVS), a pre-paid gift card company that operates in Ireland and the UK.
Last year, the company recorded operating profits of €31.2 million, despite the steep decline in mail volumes.
According to ComReg, 85 per cent of An Post mail is delivered the next day, some way short of the target of 94 per cent.
An Post is not the only delivery firm to be hit by the downturn; earlier this year, courier company DHL announced 320 redundancies as it closed depots in Athlone, Galway, Sligo, Cavan, Enniscorthy, Waterford and Tralee.
