Australia Post today called on all members of Parliament to support essential changes to manage the impacts of COVID-19 and dismisses claims these changes will force job cuts.
There are no plans to force redundancies. There are no plans to cut posties' take-home pay.
The temporary changes have been requested to enable Australia Post to continue to offer important community services and remain sustainable while managing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. These services include daily parcel and Express Post delivery, daily letter delivery in rural and regional Australia and all PO Boxes, which is critical to support small businesses.
"Unfortunately has been a range of false claims made about the temporary changes to our regulations. We are not forcing 2,000 of our valued posties into redundancies," Ms Holgate said.
"The temporary changes to letter delivery will only happen in metro areas and allow us to redeploy some of our posties to where their help is needed most – in parcel processing and delivery. We will still require posties to deliver letters.
"The shift to online retail has dramatically increased during COVID, meaning that many Australian consumers and small businesses now rely on Australia Post to get their product to their customers as their main channel of business.
"In May 2020, our letter volumes were down around 36 per cent on the previous year, with the average Australian household receiving the equivalent of 1 letter every second day.
"These temporary changes will allow our business to keep pace with the way Australians are currently shopping, doing business, and connecting with each other.
"Union claims as many as one in four postie jobs will be impacted are false. We have many more delivery rounds than we do posties and we are confident given early expressions of interest, a large portion of our workforce will want to transition to the growth area of the business.
"We continue to extensively consult with the union on issues and challenges Covid-19 has presented, which includes daily and weekly meetings with the National Secretary and the State Secretaries as we progress with our Enterprise Bargaining Agreements."
Australia Post asks all Members of Parliament and Senators to support the critical role of Australia Post, our people and our Licensed Post Office partners during this time to ensure we can serve the country during this challenging period.
