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Postal employees will pay dearly if the postal market is liberalised. According to a report the Norwegian Government has commissioned by Copenhagen Economics. In some countries, wages have fallen by almost 50%. In all six countries studied, the number of temporary employees and the proportion of part-time employees.



"The results of the report do not surprise us. This is the same as our colleagues in other countries have reported for years. Everyone loses in the liberalisation of the postal market. In addition to the employees, consumers and businesses lose, " said UNI's Norwegian postal affiliate PostKom President Odd Christian Øverland.



It is in Germany and the Netherlands that the most brutal consequences of liberalisation have come. The former state-owned postal company faces competition from companies that dump salary, hires people in the mainly part-time or allow them to work as a self-employed at an very unsatisfactory hourly rate. The consequences of liberalisation in the UK and Sweden have not been as great for wages, but they also have similar consequences in the form of part-time employees and use of temporary employees.



"Liberalisation has not provided new or improved services, as some claim. It has only led to the postal employees receiving lower wages and poorer working conditions, to create profit for shareholders in the companies, "said Overland.



The report by Copenhagen Economics is the latest in a series of reports that are commissioned by the Norwegian Government in connection with the postal directive.



"The government has now got a good basis for decisions. All reports confirm what the Postkom union have claimed - liberalisation leads to poorer and more expensive postal services. We have now confirmed that the wages and working conditions will also be reduced. The conclusion must be that the government uses the reservation clause and does not implement the 3rd postal Directive," Overland says.





A full copy of the report is available on Copenhagen Economics web page at: http://www.copenhageneconomics.dk/Home.aspx?M=News&PID=133&NewsID=329