Postmasters’ union to vote on €50m deal to save An Post

Members of the Irish Postmasters' Union will be balloted on proposals by An Post to save the network.

Several hundred members of the union attended a meeting in Tullamore on Sunday at which they received a briefing from the union's executive.

The executive said it had voted unanimously to approve the deal from An Post which was negotiated over three months by senior counsel Turlough O'Donnell.

The €50 million deal – announced last week – will secure the future of most of the 1,000-strong post office network around the country.

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IPU president Paddy McCann urged members before the Sunday meeting to vote in favour of the deal, saying that it is the “best possible negotiated solution for the future of the Post Office network” and ensures the viability of as large a network as possible.

Results

The ballot will take place on May 11th and results will be known a couple of weeks after that.

The Irish Times reported on Saturday that a memo brought to Cabinet last week stated An Post will have to cut 2,000 jobs – nearly a quarter of its workforce – over the next four years to secure its future. This was despite earlier optimistic forecasts from management.

The warning to members of the Cabinet were given in a confidential briefing to Ministers, just days before An Post announced a €50 million investment in the post office network.

An Post, in response, said the figure of 2,000 jobs cuts is from a strategic review in March 2017 and since then the company has “achieved a major turnaround and is performing well ahead of plan”.

Parcel volume

Pointing to a 30 per cent increase in parcel volume over the last year, it said parcel activity was at such a high level that An Post does “not now anticipate job reductions of this magnitude”.

Its latest figures released last week show an increase in revenue of 1.2 per cent to €840 million in 2017. The company made a profit of €8.4 million against losses of €12.4 million in 2016.

An Post’s revenues were also buoyed by the increase in the cost of a postage stamp to €1.