News

Dutch mail operator PostNL has gained official approval for plans to close its 300 delivery centres across the Netherlands under its long-term reorganisation strategy. The Amsterdam Court’s Enterprise Chamber has rejected a legal move by the Post NL Production Works Council against the company’s reorganisation and turned down all its requests. Important points in the verdict, according to Post NL, were that the proposal by the Works Council to keep open 150 delivery offices for several years was not an acceptable alternative; that the reorganisation was in proportion to the scale of the company’s targeted savings; and that PostNL had taken sufficient account of employee interests. As a result of the verdict, PostNL said it can continue its intended reorganisations. This means, amongst other measures, that it will continue establishing central preparation locations and closing the 300 delivery offices. The offices will be closed down during 2012 and 2013, but the future structure of the delivery network, including the number of central sorting offices, had not yet been decided. PostNL aims to reduce its workforce by 11,000, including 2,800 compulsory redundancies