Postal workers agree share scheme and working time changes
Published: 27 July 2000
Ireland's state-run postal services company, An Post, has concluded an agreement with trade unions on employee share ownership - giving its 8,500 workers a 14.9% stake in the company - as well as new working time arrangements and a severance agreement.
Management and trade unions at An Post, Ireland's state-owned postal company, concluded an agreement in July 2000 on an employee share-ownership plan, new cost-saving working patterns and a small number of redundancies.
Ireland's state-run postal services company, An Post, has concluded an agreement with trade unions on employee share ownership - giving its 8,500 workers a 14.9% stake in the company - as well as new working time arrangements and a severance agreement.
The overall agreement was negotiated over the past two years and was finally accepted by a narrow margin of union members at the beginning of July 2000. Just over 50% of members of the main union at the company, the Communications Workers Union (CWU), voted in favour the deal. CWU represents over 7,000 An Post employees.
The employee share-ownership plan (ESOP) is similar to that which was agreed in 1998 prior to the privatisation of Ireland's leading telecommunications company, Eircom (then Telecom Eireann), when employees there secured a 14.9% stake (IE9807253N). Prior to privatisation in July 1999, Eircom, negotiated its ESOP in return for a change and transformation agreement which included major work practice changes and over 2,000 redundancies. Eircom was valued at around IEP 2 billion at the time, a valuation which trebled when the company went public in July 1999. This put a valuation of over IEP 75,000 on individual worker shareholdings.
The 14.9% An Post deal is far more modest, with the company valued at just IEP 150 million, leaving individual holdings at around IEP 2,500 to IEP 3,000. Five percentage points of the 14.9 per cent will be "free" with the remaining 9.9 points given in return for the implementation of changes. This is the broad formula operated by the current Fianna Fail/Progressive Democrat coalition government.
The key change in An Post will be the introduction of annualised working hours at its Dublin mails centre, which has a long history of overtime working. However, the precise details of the new working system must still be worked out. There is also agreement to offer voluntary redundancy to up to 150 people. Full implementation of the agreement is contingent on the achievement of cost savings of IEP 27 million over three years.
An Post is also being split into three operating divisions: Postal Services; the Special Delivery Service (SDS) and Post Office (counter and transaction services).
Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.
Eurofound (2000), Postal workers agree share scheme and working time changes, article.
