Croatian Postal Service to lay off 700 workers by year's end

By the end of the year, the Croatian Postal Service (HP) will lay off 700 workers, for which purpose the company has already set aside HRK 110 million of own funds.

The HP has reached an agreement with the social partners on a program to provide for workers to be laid off, and all workers have been informed about it and about the conditions of their dismissal, HP officials have said. The average severance pay amounts to HRK 160,000. The highest severance pay, amounting to HRK 200,000, will be given to workers who are entitled to disability pension.

This is the first stage of the program providing for surplus labor in the company, which has more than 12,000 employees. The agreement with the social partners defines how surplus labor will be provided for in the period from 2008 to 2010, and new dismissals will follow in the next two years.

Trade unions do not expect any union action regarding the latest dismissals because they consider the agreed severance pay very stimulating considering the fact that the average salary in the HP amounts to just above HRK 4,800.

The HP management has said that it wants to improve the existing services and introduce new ones, as well as increase cost efficiency rather than lay off workers. That is why it will relocate some of its workers, depending on the introduction of new services.

The HP has been restructuring itself in order to prepare for 2013, the year when the postal services market will be liberalized.

The HP management has therefore adopted a strategic framework for the next four years, on the basis of which it will try to accomplish the profitability rate of Western European operators of 3-5% and see to it that the HP joins the European postal services market on an equal footing with other operators.

(Hina)