Swiss Post to close around one in five branches within four years
Published: Wednesday, May 29th 2024, 16:01
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Swiss Post plans to close around one in five of its branches by 2028. In four years' time, there will be 600 post offices and 2,000 staffed locations. The trade unions have strongly criticized the plans. They would be tantamount to dismantling the public service.
"We have to acknowledge that a change has taken place in the last four years with regard to the behavior of our customers," Swiss Post Group CEO Roberto Cirillo told the Keystone-SDA news agency on Wednesday. The services at the counter are being used less and less. This is why Swiss Post has to adapt its network.
According to Cirillo, it has not yet been decided which locations will be closed. Swiss Post will look for successor solutions together with the municipalities. A nationwide network will continue to be guaranteed with 600 self-operated branches and 2,000 serviced locations throughout Switzerland, "in the valleys as well as in the cities".
That would be around 763 more agencies than at the end of 2023. He is therefore "confident that the population will continue to enjoy a high quality of public service from Swiss Post in the future", said Cirillo.
More jobs filled than cut
There will be no redundancies as a result of the reduction, Swiss Post said on request. However, job changes are possible. "We will have to see whether things will be different at a specific location," said the Swiss Post CEO.
His deputy and head of the post office network Thomas Baur assumes that Swiss Post will save around 30 million francs by 2028 by restructuring the network and will need 680 fewer full-time positions, as he told the online platform blick.ch. However, due to retirements and other departures, the company will have to fill around 1,380 new positions by then. The bottom line is that 700 new people are still needed.
"Not acceptable"
Nevertheless, the Syndicom trade union criticized Swiss Post's plans in the strongest terms. They would amount to a dismantling of the public service. Syndicom will do everything in its power to preserve as many post offices as possible.
The Swiss Association for Mountain Regions (SAB) also considers a further reduction to be unacceptable. In mountainous and rural areas, the post office network is already too sparse. And the alternative offers do not provide the same scope of services.
Customers also affected
The staff association Transfair stated that it is now important that employees can keep their jobs and that they are subject to the Swiss Post collective labor agreement. Customers will also feel the effects of the cutbacks, especially older people and people with disabilities. Transfair expects special efforts from Swiss Post in this regard.
In response to an inquiry, the Federal Postal Commission (Postcom) stated that the Postal Act does not specify the number of post offices or agencies, but only accessibility and density criteria. A nationwide basic postal service that is accessible and affordable for everyone must be guaranteed.
As long as Swiss Post fulfills these obligations, Postcom cannot comment on a reduction. Postcom President and former member of the Council of States Anne Seydoux-Christe (center/JU) told Keystone-SDA that Swiss Post has a certain amount of leeway in implementing these obligations.
©Keystone/SDA
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