Turkka Kuusisto, Senior Vice President, Parcel and eCommerce business group at Posti, emphasizes that the change in collective agreement at parcel sorting operations, announced last week, responds to changing customer needs.
“We are not primarily aiming for cost savings, but above all, for flexibility in parcel sorting work. Our objective is to have flexible terms of employment that are at the same level with our competitors,” Kuusisto says.
At the moment, Posti is the only company in the delivery industry that uses Finnish Post and Logistics Union PAU’s collective agreement. The agreement is from a time when there was no competition in the postal industry and Posti had a monopoly position. Today, the parcel market faces fierce competition, and Posti needs to operate on market terms.
“The competition in eCommerce and parcel deliveries is tough. We are playing against large international actors in parcel deliveries. In addition, eCommerce operators from Asia, Central Europe and North America have their own requirements and expect agility and flexibility from our operations. We have estimated that with this change, we can overcome this challenge.”
The objective is to use equal terms of employment with the competitors
Posti’s objective is to have flexible terms of employment that are on the same level as the competitors.
Posti currently uses 11 collective agreements for various tasks. In early-morning delivery, transport and warehouse operations, Posti has already switched to each sector’s generally used collective agreements.
In the delivery industry, other companies comply with the Industrial Union’s Delivery collective agreement. Transporters that also deliver parcels comply with the Transport Workers’ Union AKT’s agreement. Nearly 10 percent of Posti’s employees also comply with AKT’s agreement.
Compensation models level out the total income
According to Kuusisto, when discussing the salary effects, it is important to note that the current salary table cannot be directly compared to the future one, as the new compensation models will level out the total income. We will also invest in the transition period support that will be paid to employees until the end of March 2020.
“I understand our employees. The change in terms of employment is a difficult one and raises many questions. This is a very unfortunate situation,” Kuusisto says.
“Comparing the salary tables does not really give the correct idea, as in the future, salaries will comprise two separate parts instead of one. In the Industrial Union collective agreement, a planned performance pay is added on top of the salary table income, and at its best, the total income is even higher than now. Therefore, you cannot just compare the salary table,” Kuusisto emphasizes.
The change concerns approximately 700 employees who will adopt the new collective agreement on November 1, 2019.
PAU started illegal industrial action last night in processing and sorting tasks. According to Kuusisto, the strikes will delay a small part of the shipments today, and right now, it looks like the majority of shipments will be delivered to customers in the promised schedule. Posti is doing its absolute best to make sure that the effects to customers are as small and short-term as possible. PAU has announced that the strikes will continue until September 4.
Useful links
Up-to-date information on how the strike affects Posti’s services
