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Post office considers cutting 2,000 staff

Around 2,000 staff could leave the post service in Sweden and Denmark in a new programme of savings, Posten Norden's CEO has confirmed. The firm reported losses of almost 700 million kronor for the final quarter 2009.

Published: 24 February 2010 09:32 CET

Post office considers cutting 2,000 staff

Posten Norden, which runs postal services in Sweden and Denmark, reported a net loss of 696 million kronor ($96 million) for the fourth quarter 2009, in comparison with a profit of 794 million in the corresponding period of 2008.

The firm on Wednesday announced a new austerity programme “to meet the uncertain market situation and other factors that affect our operations.”

“It will mean fewer employees. And it is too early to say anything about that. But we cut almost 4,000 during 2009, across the two countries. It will not be as many during 2010, but perhaps we can say 2,000,” the firm’s CEO, Lars G Nordström told the TT news agency on Wednesday.

Some of the redundancies will be accounted for by attrition and by shifting full-time staff to part-time.

“In certain places compensation packages will be offered to encourage staff to go,” Nordström confirmed.

Nordström assured customers that service levels will remain the same and that the redundancies are a reaction to declining volumes.

The firm reported a turnover of 11.6 billion kronor, down from 12.1 billion kronor the year before.

The full year result was boosted by capital gains of 2 billion kronor from the sale of a stake in the Belgian post office. Profits before tax amounted to 2.4 billion kronor, in comparison to 3.6 billion for the full year 2008.

The board proposed a dividend, to the Swedish and Danish states, of 1.44 billion kronor.

Posten Norden was formed last year following the fusion of Swedish Posten and Danish Post Danmark. The comparative figures for 2008 are adjusted accordingly.

The firm has accounted for around 1 billion kronor in restructuring costs for the savings programme in its figures for the fourth quarter. The money is earmarked to fund restructuring, rationalization and modernization within all of the firm’s business areas and service networks.

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'Hero' postal worker ends UK man's ID nightmare

“It’s as if the human face of Swedish bureaucracy was somehow able to shine through and solve my problem,” UK-native Marcus Bush told The Local on Tuesday.

A few weeks ago, Bush had mailed his valid British passport and Swedish identity card to the Migration Board (Migrationsverket) as part of his application for Swedish citizenship.

But when the agency sent back his British passport via registered mail, Bush was shocked to learn he couldn’t use his UK driver’s licence to verify his identity when he picked up the envelope.

As of April 15th, Swedish postal operator Posten no longer considers foreign driver’s licences as a valid form of ID to pick up a package, even if the licence was issued by another EU member state.

The situation became all the more urgent as Bush is scheduled to travel to Prague next week and he was uncertain he’d be allowed to board the plane without his passport.

“I really didn’t know what I was going to do,” he said.

In a last ditch attempt to solve the matter, Bush walked across town to a post office actually managed by Posten, rather than the local, independently-managed outlet to which he had been directed to pick up the envelope containing his passport.

“I figured, what do I have to lose? Maybe an actual Posten employee had more discretion than an agent who risks losing his contract if he doesn’t do everything by the book,” said Bush.

To help his case, Bush took with him an expired passport, a recent utility bill, as well as proof of homeowners insurance and “basically anything I could find” that could help prove he was indeed the person to whom the envelope was addressed.

Much to his surprise, the ploy worked.

“The woman at Posten quickly realized my predicament and even offered to run back to my neighbourhood postal agent to pick up the envelope and bring it back to her office,” Bush explained.

“She told me that if I came back in an hour, I’d be able to pick up my package.”

And sure enough, when Bush strode into the post office on Tuesday, the Posten employee with whom he had spoken duly presented him with the envelope containing his passport.

“But now you have to open it before I let you leave,” she said as The Local looked on.

Bush ripped into the envelope to find his UK passport, prompting a wide grin.

“It feels like Christmas,” he said with delight.

The Posten employee, who wished to remain anonymous, explained that cases like Bush’s occur “all the time”.

“The difference is that since I work for Posten, I have the authority to make a decision about someone’s identity,” she explained as she promptly borrowed Bush’s passport to verify once and for all that he was who he claimed to be and update records to show he had in fact received the envelope.

In an effort to show his appreciation for the woman’s efforts, Bush handed over a bouquet of flowers to the startled Posten employee, who blushed as she accepted them.

“Oh no, you shouldn’t have,” she said.

“It’s the least I could do,” Bush replied.

Passport in hand, Bush can now travel to Prague worry-free.

“I’m thrilled that this all got sorted out. But I think the Migration Board should think about how the deal with situations like this so that others like me don’t end up with the same problem,” he said.

David Landes

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