Post's cynical attempt to justify regulation changes
The Coalition of Mail Service Stakeholders (CoMSS) comprising the CWU National Office, printers, mail houses, licensed post offices and other unions has accused Post boss, Ahmed Fahour, of making a "cynical attempt" to build support for major cuts to the letters business by releasing the company’s first-half profit results one day before his Senate estimates grilling.
Post reported a first-half financial year profit after tax of $98 million. Letters services lost $151 million, a deterioration of 57% on the first half of last financial year. Mr. Fahour is sounding the alarm bells. "We're at a crisis point," he said. "What we need to do is to fix the regulation on letters to stem the losses.”
At least that's what the Post boss wants us to believe.
"But the fact is that Australia Post’s whole business performed quite well last financial year,” Martin O’Nea CWU Assistant Secretary said. "The underlying profit reported by Post, before one-off costs such as restructuring, was actually up by over 10 per cent to $518 million last year.”
Mr. Fahour should not forget the efforts of Postal workers as downsizing occurs, as jobs change and who are only rewarded with a non union EBA with below average pay rises.
