Layoffs looming if the government won't pay subsidies, PostNL says

If the government won’t provide aid for PostNL, the future of many of the company’s employees is uncertain, PostNL CEO Pim Berendsen told Nieuwsuur. He said that he “cannot rule out” forced layoffs among the 20,000 PostNL mail sorters and postal workers.

PostNL wants 68 million euros from the government to maintain letter delivery this year and next. The government refused to provide that aid, so the postal company is taking the matter to court.

Delivering letters is becoming increasingly expensive. Mail volumes have been declining for years, but PostNL’s postal workers still have to cover the same routes in the same time, while wages and other costs continue to increase.

From July next year, PostNL will have 48 hours to deliver a letter, instead of the current 24 hours. According to caretaker Minister Vincent Karremans, this should give the company “more breathing room.”

But according to Berendsen, it is not enough. The losses are piling up, and PostNL can’t survive like this. Even the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) believes that you can’t expect a commercial company to provide a public service against these losses, he told Nieuwsuur.

According to Berendsen, PostNL isn’t asking for ridiculous amounts. The subsidy it requested amounts to an average of 2 cents per letter. “We’re talking about relatively limited funds.”

PostNL is making profits from its parcel delivery division, but Berendsen refuses to transfer that money to rescue the mail delivery service. He called it “a bit crazy to undermine the competitive position of a business unit that has to compete fiercely with companies that have already received much more frequent and different government support in their own countries.”