Cutting mail services will hurt workers
On 2 June Australia Post introduced a two-speed letter service for business letters which means that letters will now take longer to deliver but at a cheaper price than the 5-day-week service ,unless the business is willing to pay a premium.
This system is expected to be extended to all Australians if the CSOs are relaxed.
APost at a glance. This is not a business that is going away anytime soon.
32,732 employees (including about 14,000 delivery staff)
4429 post offices
* 1868 metropolitan
* 2561 regional
15,927 street postboxes
10,540 trucks, vans and motorbikes
95% of letters from business and government
Letters and parcels
2009 5.3 billion
2013 4.6 billion
10%▼ in addressed letters 2011-2013
17%▲ in domestic parcels 2011-2013
Total revenue
2009 $5 billion
2013 $5.9 billion
After-tax profit
2009 $261 million
2013 $312 million
This will have a huge impact on workers in mail sorting and delivery centres. It will overload workers on the days when mail is delivered, back log sorting centres and isolate regional/rural and remote communities reliant on the mail for communication. It will impact on jobs.
There is no justification for reducing mail delivery at this time. Australia Post is still profitable. Revenue has increased over the past five years by $1 billion. The organisation returned a dividend to government of $244 million - and paid taxes of $447million. The losses made in regulated mail were easily picked up by profits on the non-regulated side, mostly parcels ($648 million).
Letters is still a significant part of the business. The challenge is to maintain this part of the business while also supporting future parcel growth. There is time to transition from letters to parcels in an orderly way without the changes that will cut jobs and services. Mail is not dead. This is not a business that is going away anytime soon.
