Seán Crowe
Question:82 Mr. Crowe asked the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources if he will report on the situation regarding the SDS service of An Post. [31174/04]
View answerTuesday, 30 November 2004
Questions (44, 45)
Written answers
There have been heavy losses in recent years at An Post's parcel delivery subsidiary, the special delivery service or SDS. These losses amounted to €18 million in a three year period to 2003, with losses of €12 million in 2003 alone. Further losses forecast at €10 million are likely to be sustained in 2004. In these circumstances, the board of An Post at its July meeting decided to close the SDS, and to reintegrate the parcels business into the letter post division. A total of 180 SDS jobs will be reintegrated into letter post and an entirely voluntary redundancy package will be introduced for an anticipated 270 job losses. The redundancy package will be funded by property disposals.
It is my understanding that, following a request from the ICTU, the national implementation body held a hearing to determine whether the company breached the partnership terms of Sustaining Progress in making its decision to reintegrate SDS. The national implementation body, as part of its determination proposed that an independent facilitator be agreed to share the financial details and institute a process for information sharing. Mr. Peter Cassells has been appointed as facilitator and the process has been up and running for some time.
I stress that both An Post management and the Communications Workers Union have agreed that issues arising from the closure of SDS would be handled through the national implementation board process. Accordingly, I take this opportunity to urge both sides to make full use of the implementation board, which is a key pillar of social partnership, to address the financial issues of disagreement that have arisen between them.
Seán Crowe
Question:83 Mr. Crowe asked the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources if he will conduct an investigation into the management services of An Post. [31175/04]
View answerUnder the Postal and Telecommunications Services Act 1983, the board of An Post is responsible for the appointment of the chief executive and oversight of the An Post management team. The current chief executive officer took up office in July 2003 and immediately commenced a review of An Post financials. The exercise indicated forecast losses of over €47 million in 2003 and the virtual exhaustion of cash reserves.
With company financials facing meltdown, a recovery strategy was immediately prepared and approved by the board of An Post. The strategy envisaged a substantial restructuring of the company, with over 1,700 voluntary redundancies and introduction of new work practices in return for pay increases. The recovery strategy was presented to the unions in December 2003 and difficult negotiations commenced on agreement and delivery of change. Eleven months later, proposals for restructuring were finalised under the auspices of the Labour Relations Commission and are currently being balloted on by the Communications Workers Union.
The parcels division of An Post, SDS, has faced very difficult trading conditions in recent years. In the last five years, losses of over €30 million have been incurred. A restructuring plan for SDS was implemented in 2003. Unfortunately, this did not stem the losses and the board of An Post, based on the previous losses and the expected trading performance in 2004 together with the inability of SDS to compete in a very competitive parcels market, decided to close SDS and reintegrate the viable areas of the parcels business into letterpost thereby saving 170 jobs. On foot of a union request, the closure was referred to the National Implementation Body established under Sustaining Progress. Arising from that process, Mr. Peter Cassells was appointed as facilitator to resolve any issues arising from the closure process.
Since the appointment of the current chief executive by the board, the focus of the board and management along with the trade unions has been on the necessary restructuring of An Post so that the company can return to financial stability and continue to provide a good service while providing sustainable jobs for An Post employees. Rather than engage in any activity which would distract the board, management, unions and shareholder from the key objective to achieve company turnaround, the focus should continue to remain on implementing the necessary charges through the restructuring process. Considering the scale of the problems facing An Post, I believe that the interests of the company is best served by concentrating on the restructuring of the company in a spirit of partnership.