by René Lavanchy
THE worldwide privatisation of postal services is leading to job losses and pay cuts for postal workers without any significant increase in competition, according to a union-sponsored report published this week.
UNI Global Network, a global umbrella body for service unions, said new competitors have not taken more than 10 per cent market share of the letter delivery business in any of the 12 countries surveyed.
It also found that Dutch postal operator TNT – the Government’s preferred bidder for buying a stake in Royal Mail – has cut 16,000 jobs in the Netherlands during the liberalisation of the postal market, and it “practically does not hire full-time employees any more”.
The report comes as the House of Commons prepares to debate the bill that will part-privatise Royal Mail early next month.
Neil Anderson, UNI’s head of post and logistics, said: “What we have been seeing in Germany and the Netherlands recently – postal companies demanding lower wages and announcing big job cuts – is the inevitable disastrous conclusion of a failed liberalisation policy.”
