Post job cuts in dispute

ONE-QUARTER of Geelong posties face the boot if changes to Australia Post’s work practices are approved during a senate vote expected in August, the communication workers union says.

It comes as a recent approval by the Morrison Government allowed Australia Post to deliver letters every second day in Geelong and other metropolitan areas until June 2021.

Victorian Communications Workers Union postal branch secrectary Leroy Lazaro said proposed changes to Australia Post’s delivery model that would put more emphasis on parcel delivery could see onein-four posties made redundant.

“What it means is four posties are being reduced to three. So what happens to 25 per cent of the jobs?” Mr Lazaro said.

Australia Post has denied the changes would lead to job losses, but Mr Lazaro said Australia Post was seeking to group postal delivery rounds together, which would signal the end of single-postie rounds.

“Currently four rounds are serviced by four posties, delivering letters and parcels for that respective round.

“Moving forward they want to have two posties service the letters of four rounds and have one postie service the parcels of all the four rounds.”

Mr Lazaro said he was unsure if daily residential mail delivery would ever return.

Australia Post chief executive Christine Holgate said posties delivering mail and parcels via vans could increase delivery capacity.

“Union claims as many as one in four postie jobs will be impacted are false. We are not forcing 2000 of our valued posties into redundancies,” Ms Holgate said.

She said Australia Post had “many more delivery rounds” than posties.

“The temporary changes to letter delivery will only happen in metro areas (Geelong included) and allow us to redeploy some of our posties to where their help is needed most – in parcel processing and delivery. We will still require posties to deliver letters.

“In May 2020, our letter volumes were down around 36 per cent on the previous year, with the average Australian household receiving the equivalent of 1 letter every second day.

Australia Post said deliveries to post office boxes would remain the same.

Geelong-based Senator Sarah Henderson said the changes were due to be voted on in the next sitting of parliament.

“Letters volumes are way down and parcel volumes are way up, with COVID-19 sharply accelerating these longstanding trends,” she said.

“Labor is running a baseless scare campaign about Australia Post and is again showing its more interested in playing politics than dealing with the impacts of COVID-19.”

“The Government has made temporary regulatory changes which will allow Australia Post to redeploy 2000 posties from delivering letters to delivering parcels. That means more job security for posties and better services for Australians, who are buying lots more online, which in turn means many more parcels to be delivered.”