Up to 2,000 jobs gone at NZ Post – with little warning

November 1, 2013
Media Release

Up to 2,000 jobs gone at New Zealand Post – with little warning

New Zealand Post’s announcement today of massive redundancies and cuts to services is simply cruel, says the union for postal workers, the EPMU.

New Zealand Post announced today that up to 2,000 jobs would be lost across its business, and Post Shops will be closed, and could be replaced with kiosks in supermarkets.

“The scale of these cuts has come as a real shock to our members,” says Joe Gallagher, the EPMU’s postal industry organiser. “Yet again New Zealand Post and the Government have made a huge announcement out of the blue.

“These plans have clearly been in the pipeline for a long time, but the people affected by them, including all New Zealanders who use the postal service, have been kept in the dark.”

One week ago the Government announced changes to New Zealand Post’s Deed of Understanding – just a day after telling the EPMU that there was no timeline for that decision to be made.

“The people who will lose their jobs will have a hard time finding work in the current economic climate. Regional communities will be hit hard. At the very least, the Government owed it to workers to give them some warning that these huge cuts were coming.

“New Zealand Post has always had a strong social obligation to New Zealanders. We’re worried today’s decision signals an end to that obligation, and to the idea of the post as an important public service.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media