TALLINN - A debate has arisen whether Eesti Post, the state-owned postal company, should switch to a five-day delivery system beginning next month as a drastic cost-cutting measure.
The company announced on March 4 in April it would deliver mail five days per week but continue delivering periodicals six days. Saturday mail service, Eesti Post, will be discontinued.
The change would affect about 1,000 mailmen whose six-day working week will be replaced by a five-day week, the company said, and would allow the company to save more than 3 million kroons (192,000 euros) annually. Labor currently accounts for 60 percent of the company's expenses.
Economic Affairs Minister Juhan Parts immediately announced his disapproval of the decision.
"I don't support delivery of letters five days of the week, the quality of the universal postal service is something in which the management of Eesti Post should not make any concessions," Parts said on March 4.
All three Baltic postal companies are losing money due to global trends in communication. Latvia's postal company, however, finished 2007 with far greater losses than its Baltic counterparts (see story on Page 6).
Eesti Post last month announced that it had posted a loss of 34 million kroons in 2007, up from a loss of 20.4 million kroons in 2006.
The company also announced it would close 95 post offices this year and dismiss 250 people by Aug. 1 due to low demand for postal services. The company said it would cut the number of medium-level managers and lay off staff at the expense of closure of post offices, launching of a letter line and transition to five-day delivery. The layoff would not apply to postmen, company executives said.
Eesti Post claims that a five-day delivery week has proved itself in Finland, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Spain, Ireland, Hungary and other countries.
Eesti Post currently has 4,100 employees in 495 post offices. Last year the company closed 44 branch offices.
