Money

Europe split over handling of postal services while in lockdown


The handling of postal services and treatment of workers in response to the coronavirus has been starkly different across Europe as millions of people are trapped at home under quarantine orders.

As closures threaten to leave people stranded just when they need the service most, France and Spain have sharply reduced operations to protect workers from falling ill, while in the UK, Germany and Italy deliveries are running largely as normal. 

Only about 10 per cent of postal offices are open in France and deliveries have been cut back to three days instead of six. This poses a problem to the estimated 1.5m older people and the poor, who rely on postal offices to collect monthly welfare payments.

Spain has temporarily cut postal staffing levels to about 13,000 workers a day or a quarter of normal levels.

Unions in France have pushed the state-owned postal service to put workers’ safety first, calling for closures despite their status as an essential service.

“Our postal workers are working without masks or gloves, threatening their health with every delivery,” said Valérie Mannevy, a representative for the CGT union at La Poste. “We want to fulfil our public service mission but can only do so if the health protection measures are correct.”

Coronavirus business update

How is coronavirus taking its toll on markets, business, and our everyday lives and workplaces? Stay briefed with our coronavirus newsletter.

Sign up here

In Spain, two unions have accused the state-owned post office of turning the two-week-old lockdown as a “business opportunity”, maintaining an excessively high level of activity and “obliging staff to work without protective equipment”. They say that more than 600 postal workers have tested positive for coronavirus.

The Spanish post office says such figures are confidential and that staff on duty are now supplied with masks, sanitiser gel and gloves. It says demand has fallen along with staffing levels, and that it is still assuring services as required by law.

In contrast, Italian postal workers are still working despite the death toll from the outbreak being the worst in Europe. Deliveries are being made as normal six days a week, although some of its smaller 12,800 offices have closed. Ecommerce giant Amazon relies on the Italian post for its deliveries, and is Poste Italiane’s single biggest client by postal volume.

Italy’s post offices also remain open to serve the 8m pensioners who collect their state pensions in person.

Deutsche Post, which is publicly traded and only partly owned by KfW, a state-backed development bank, says letter and package deliveries are continuing as normal in Germany and full services are available in post offices. Steps have been taken to protect workers such as equipping trucks with canisters of water for handwashing.

Royal Mail in the UK is still operating daily service.

The Communication Workers Union is delaying planned strikes under a long-running labour dispute because of coronavirus. But it said an appeal to reduce deliveries to three times a week and for employees to work on alternate days for the duration of the outbreak was rejected.

“More than ever, people are relying on us,” said the company.

The patchwork of approaches among the national postal carriers also contrasts with private companies, such as UPS and DHL, which continue to deliver packages to European businesses and residents relatively smoothly.

UPS says it continues to operate regular service, except for in roughly 1 per cent of European postcodes where governments have suspended pick-ups and deliveries. 

Since Europe entered lockdown three weeks ago, demand has risen not only for online groceries, but also for exercise equipment, office supplies, toys and books, according to market researchers NPD and Kantar.

But with postal services being cut back, consumers risk longer delays to getting the stuff they order and businesses could miss out on a lifeline to keep activity going. For example, newspaper and magazine publishers in France have criticised La Poste’s position as an existential threat to their advertising and subscriptions.

“La Poste is radically cutting back on package deliveries just as our sales are exploding,” said one top executive at a national online retailer in France, who declined to be named. “Things are quite tense with fewer delivery workers than normal.”

Additional reporting by Domitille Alain, Michael Pooler and Guy Chazan



READ SOURCE

Leave a Reply

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.