Delays in mail handling to continue

Due to the ongoing industrial action, disruptions to normal mail delivery will continue throughout Finland. The backlog is being cleared at the Helsinki post center, and most overnight deliveries (1st class letters, Express letters) are being handled in the usual schedule and will be delivered throughout Finland after the weekend, on Monday. Clearing the backlog of other products will, however, take several more days. This concerns magazines, bulk letters and advertisements in particular. All of these will be delivered to the recipients during this week. 2nd class letters will be delivered to recipients with a delay of a few days, which means the early part of this week.

The overtime and extra work prohibition declared by the Finnish Post and Logistics Union (PAU) is still ongoing, and is causing delays to letter mail deliveries and parcel sorting at the Seinäjoki and Tampere post centers.

The delays concern the following items in daytime delivery:

• Some 1st class letters
• Some Express letters
• Some Maxi letters
• Some parcels (delays in the Seinäjoki and Tampere areas)
• Magazines, newspapers and free papers
• Bulk letters
• 2nd class deliveries, including advertisements

The delivery situation of daily mail varies by area and day, which is why it is not possible to provide any location-specific forecasts.

The following will be delivered as usual:

• Blood shipments and laboratory samples
• Early-morning paper delivery
• Services at postal agency shops
• Services mainly according to the usual schedule at Posti shops (should there be changes to opening hours, the changes will be separately notified)
• Most parcel deliveries (delays in the Seinäjoki and Tampere areas)

If the work stoppages announced for the first two weeks of November (November 2 -11) commence, delivery times and clearing the backlog will be extended to several days.

The work stoppages would concern the following:

• Mail sorting at the Turku, Jyväskylä, Seinäjoki, Rovaniemi, Tampere, Oulu, and Kuopio post centers and terminals
• Mail delivery in postal code areas with prefix 21-25 in Southwestern Finland and those with prefix 00-19 in Southern Finland
• Posti shops in Turku, Raisio, and Kaarina

The possible work stoppages and their impact will be communicated later if required.

Communication about mail delivery will be provided next on Monday, November 1, at 9 a.m.

The industrial action is based on expiration of the collective labor agreement for the communication and logistics sector on October 15. The aim of the ongoing collective labour agreement negotiations is to reach a new agreement as soon as possible.

Additional information: Posti Customer Service for consumers at 0200 71000 (local call/mobile call rate) Mon-Fri 8 a.m. - 8 p.m., Sat 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. and for businesses at 0200 77000 (local call/mobile call rate) Mon-Fri 8 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Further information for the media: Itella MediaDesk, tel. +358 20 452 3366