An Post to give 5% pay rise to staff as part of restructuring

Kenneth Fox

An Post staff will get pay rises of up to 5 per cent from any savings achieved through the restructuring of its mail network, the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) has said.

As the Irish Examiner reports, general secretary of the CWU, Sean McDonagh, was speaking as the company embarks this week on a major review of the network which includes proposals to close or consolidate more than 20 local district sorting offices — mostly in Mayo and Cork.

The scale of the proposed changes is outlined in an agreement between An Post and the CWU on a company transformation programme which was endorsed by the union on May 26th. The CWU represents some 8,500 of An Post's 9,000 staff.

The programme seeks to chart a path to a sustainable future for the company which posted a combined €60m loss over the last two years. The mail network review, which starts this week, will focus on district sorting offices (DSOs) in the company’s 20 district sorting units (DSUs). It could take up to 18 months to complete.

Postal staff use DSOs to prepare mail for local delivery. They were also where undelivered mail was retained for collection by customers later until a decision was made to leave undelivered mail at local post offices for collection.

While An Post stressed that no decisions have been made pending the outcome of the review, 20 DSOs, spread across Dublin, Mayo, Sligo, Cork and Kerry, are being considered for closure or consolidation.

A spokesperson for An Post said the review process is mainly about matching the company’s mail operations and network to the change in the work it does. “Nothing is being done without the full agreement of our staff and with our customers in mind,” he said.

Mr McDonagh said the union has engaged intensively with An Post management on the agreement over the last 18 months, and on the implementation of agreed pay rises which have delivered a 5 per cent pay increase in two instalments.