Collective deal talks between Palta, PAU on

The Service Sector Employers Palta and the Finnish Postal and Logistics Union PAU have continued their negotiations on the collective agreement of Posti employees on Wednesday, said a press release of Posti, the company that operates the country’s postal and logistic services.

“The negotiations aim at finding viable solutions to increase Posti’s operational flexibility and allow Posti to meet the challenges in the highly competitive market that is going through a major transformation. Posti’s proposal does not include any pay cuts in the next agreement period. The objective is to achieve flexible terms that correspond with those used by competitors,” said Palta Director General Tuomas Aarto.

Aarto said one concrete example of the solutions being sought is the delivery of letters in connection with the early-morning delivery of newspapers.

This is currently prohibited by a separate agreement between Posti and PAU. There are 16 delivery companies in Finland, in addition to Posti that delivers letters as morning delivery, Aarto added.

“We do not seek pay cuts for the next agreement period in the collective agreement negotiations between Palta and PAU, but we urgently need to find solutions to increase our operational flexibility and to maintain our competitiveness. Posti is going through historical changes due to paper mail volumes falling at an accelerating pace. Today on average we make approximately five addressed deliveries to every Finnish household every week. In a couple of years, this figure will fall to three,” said Posti Group Senior Vice-President Oyj Yrjö Eskola.

The negotiations apply to approximately 10,000 employees, most of who work in mail delivery. Parcel sorting personnel, who were previously mentioned in connection with the negotiations, are not affected. The negotiations will continue on October 14.