‘Significant job losses’ in NZ Post changes
New Zealand Post has confirmed plans to ‘streamline mail into its parcel network’ which will effectively see couriers pick up work from posties at the cost of hundreds ofjobs.
NZ Post said it was making the move to create a “sustainable” and “cost-effective service” through one network. It said it no longer made sense to have one person delivering parcels and another delivering mail.
Last year NZ Post told its workforce it planned to lay off at least 750 staff over five years, as its postal services were no longer being used like they once were.
NZ Post chief executive David Walsh said NZ Post had consulted with employees and unions and engaged with transport and delivery partners since October before making the decision to merge its mail and parcel networks.
“The way we deliver mail in the future will look very different and we know our future workforce won’t be the same size and shape as it is today,” Walsh said.
“Currently we have two separate delivery networks – one for mail and one for parcels. This will over time cease to be commercially viable as mail volumes continue to decline.”
Walsh said the decision to merge the mail and the parcel business would result in “significant job losses” in the existing mail delivery, processing and support roles.
It is not clear if this decision would include additional job losses outside of the 750 it confirmed in June.
NZ Post is going through a period of transformation, and making changes in line with those seen globally, in response to the ongoing decline in mail volumes, he said.
The move would support future growth in ecommerce, and help the national mail carrier chart a path to commercial sustainability, he said.
“Twenty years ago New Zealanders sent over 1 billion mail items in the year, which has decreased dramatically to around 220 million mail items in the current year, and we predict that this will decrease to about 120 million items by 2028,” Walsh said.
Walsh said NZ Post would continue to invest in its delivery business as part of wider plans to become commercially viable.
Referring to the changes and downsizing of operations, he said: “These are not always easy decisions to make.”
Postal workers have said NZ Post’s move to replace them with couriers will make deliveries much slower.
Postal Workers Union co-president John Maynard has said forcing couriers to carry letters in their vans would slow everything down.
"Van delivery will be slowed down because it’s much quicker to go along the footpath on an electric bike. We’re saying that the posties holding on to mail and small packets and parcels is a more efficient way of delivering it than small packets and parcels and mail being delivered by diesel and petrol powered vans,” Maynard said.
Joe Gallagher, union negotiations specialist at E tū, which also represents NZ Post workers, said the expectation of couriers to deliver mail on lower margins would be a challenge.
It would also mean that couriers’ workload would increase significantly.
“My experience of the contracting model has not been a positive one, we’ve seen it across the telco sector and couriers, particularly the Freightways model in doing things, I think it’s a race to the bottom,” Gallagher said.
He said posties were seen as an important aspect for the community.
“Couriers don’t have the same sort of flexibility to slow down, they are always on the run and working on a three-cycle day. They just finish their first cycle and into the midday and then anything leftover they’ve got to take back at the end of the day. There is constant pressure in that model and it all sits on the couriers - it is very challenging when you’re running a small business like that.”
Gallagher said he believed merging mail delivery with the parcel network would result in a lot more job losses than 750 as NZ Post had initially signalled.
He said NZ Post would need to be careful not to “wreck their service standards” by the move and lose the support of the general public.
He said 50 NZ Post staff had lost their jobs, in the Christchurch mail centre alone, in December.
“The impact in the instability in employment is being felt by workers already.”