Chris Peeters, CEO of Belgian postal services provider Bpost’s holding company Bnode, is fully confident that an agreement will be reached with the unions in May. He was speaking in one of his first interviews since the postal strike began at the end of last month.
The aim was to have a final agreement on the transformation plan at Bpost by yesterday. That deadline was not met, but an agreement between management and the unions is now very much in sight, according to Chris Peeters, CEO of Bnode, the group that owns Bpost. ‘The broad outlines are in place. There is a framework, but a few more steps still need to be taken.’
‘Over the coming month, we still need to examine what this means in concrete terms for each individual employee. It is important that we take sufficient time for this.’
Because in recent weeks, a great deal of misinformation has been circulating among staff, says Peeters. ‘We were supposedly asking for a great deal more flexibility from our employees. That was never part of our plans. It was said that we would be introducing variable hours; that is not true either. We are still asking for a 5-day working week of 7 hours and 36 minutes with a break.’
‘But it is true that we are asking postal workers to start their working day two hours later, from around 7 am to 9 am. That shift is essential if we want to focus more on the parcel market.’
Importance of online shopping market
‘Most people order their parcels in the evening, after tea. Almost all our major clients – the centres that prepare those parcels – are located just across the border. They want to be able to feed their parcels into our network later in the day. That means that if we want to retain our major clients, we have to adapt.’ And so the postal workers have to set off later.
‘I understand, of course, that this is a major adjustment for many people and that they are not keen on it. But it is in the interests of their job security and future. If we do not focus on those parcels, we will not be able to continue offering quality jobs.’
Apologies offerred
The strike action at Bpost has severely disrupted the postal service, particularly in Brussels. Two distribution centres there were still blocked on Saturday morning. ‘One of them was cleared during the course of the morning.’
‘We will have to offer a full apology to the people who have had to wait a long time for their post,’ says Peeters. ‘Sometimes this includes important documents, such as number plates, invoices and medical documents. In Flanders, the backlog has almost been cleared; in Wallonia, we have been fully operational since the start of this week.’
‘This strike has had a very negative impact on the company, but we are going to work hard to regain our customers’ trust. Fortunately, postal workers are still among the professions people trust the most. That is something CEOs and journalists cannot say.’