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Posti announced today that it will transfer its parcel sorting to a cheaper collective bargaining agreement negotiated by Medialiitto (Finnmedia) and Teollisuusliitto (Industrial union) 1.11.2019 onwards. The Finnish Post and Logistics Union PAU regards the state-owned company’s cheapening of work conditions as outrageous and responds to Posti’s actions through industrial action. Mail handling and sorting operations will be halted during 2.9. – 4.9. Employees will not arrive for shifts that begin on Sunday 1.9. after 10 pm. Employees will be returning to work on Wednesday 5.9. from 00:00 onwards. Subsequent collective action will be notified separately.
As a result of the changing of collective labour agreement, the working conditions of some 700 employees and white-collar workers are deteriorating. Salary decreases on average 30%, up to 50% at most. This is despite the fact that, according to Teollisuusliitto, their collective labour agreement cannot even be applied to mail handling tasks.
Are all of Posti’s workers next? There would then be more than 10 000 postal workers at risk of weakened employment terms. In addition to the pay cut, employees would also lose out on other terms of employment.
Everyone can consider from their own perspective a situation when one third of the salary is cut. Life will be totally turned over. This will ruin Posti’s parcel services as the availability of workers on poor working conditions becomes more difficult, says PAU’s chairperson Heidi Nieminen.
In the past, Posti has systematically outsourced work to external companies and has itself set up new companies to which old employees have been transferred to. Newspaper deliverers were transferred to inferior collective labour agreement during 2017–2018, when Posti founded Posti Palvelut Oy, joined Medialiitto and transferred its employees to the new company through a business transfer.
Instead of PAU's Collective Agreement on Communications and Logistics Sector, newspaper deliverers were transferred into the Teollisuusliitto’s Collective Agreement Concerning Delivery Personnel which is distinctively weaker compared to PAU's. Newspaper deliverers' salaries fell by an average of 40 percent, and the same is now happening in the parcel sector.
In March 2019, Posti changed the terms of employment and signed a new framework agreement with SOL Logistiikkapalvelut Oy, a temporary working agency for the distribution and handling of mail, where Teollisuusliitto’s Collective Agreement Concerning Delivery Personnel is being followed.
If there is another collective labour agreement in the field of work, changing the agreement and lowering the wages of the employees can be achieved by changing the employer association. As a result of collective labour agreement shopping now taking place, workers' wages will in practice be reduced by several hundred euros; the average monthly salary of a postal worker is € 2,200, of which a 30% reduction in salary means a monthly decrease of € 660 in income.
In its announcement, Posti states that it will pay workers transitional support until the end of March 2020, if the current quality of work is maintained. With an unspecified quality goal, the employer seeks to silence employees and prevent employees from fighting for current working conditions and wages.
Since the beginning of April, PAU has campaigned against collective labour agreement shopping by appealing to decision makers and drawing attention to collective labour agreement shopping through both social media and newspaper advertising. The campaign is specifically targeted at the ownership steering by the state.
- We are sorry for the inconvenience caused to Posti's customers by the industrial action. Posti leaves employees with no choice but to fight for their salary and other terms of employment.
Shipments related to customers' health and safety are restricted outside the strike.
Further information: Heidi Nieminen, Chairperson, 050 340 3217
You can find information about the collective labour agreement shopping and the related campaign at www.tyoehtoshoppailu.fi, Twitter @tes_shopping, Facebook and Instagram (@tyoehtoshoppailu.fi).