News

The only bright spot in the latest job loss news from New Zealand Post, is that there now is such a demand for the postal financial services offered by KiwiBank, that jobs there are increasing.



The financial crisis driven recession is seeing jobs in mail services dropping all over the globe. Neil Anderson, Head of UNI Post & Logistics said today, "postal workers are paying with their jobs for the economic and financial mismanagement of the world's economy by the finance industry. The only beacon of hope is government owned and operated postal financial services. Ordinary people want security for their savings and financial transactions and that is being manifest in an upturn for the trusted government run and secure banks such as those run by the post office networks throughout the world."



Recent reports from New Zealand are a real indication of what is happening to jobs and work in postal networks. Without postal financial services the unemployment situation for postal workers would be worse than the already current serious situation.



Nearly 400 jobs at New Zealand Post Group have fallen victim to the recession. Acting group chief executive Sam Knowles said that there had been 237 redundancies in the first half of this year, 86 jobs were lost through attrition, and 61 fixed term contracts not renewed.



Mr Knowles said the recession, an unprecedented mail volume decline and challenging trading conditions were to blame for job cuts.



The group had about 10,000 permanent staff.



Approximately 90 percent of total job reductions were in the postal services business, and 72 percent of that block took voluntary redundancy.



''Different businesses within the Group are being affected in different ways and each is responding appropriately,'' Mr Knowles said.



''While the postal services and data processing and management activities have been adversely affected, Kiwibank is experiencing substantial growth and has added 89 people to its payroll during the period.''