'Political agenda' behind NZ Post cuts - union

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The union representing postal workers has claimed there is a "political agenda" behind the Government's decision to allow NZ Post to cut back its mail deliveries.

Changes to the Deed of Understanding between the company and the Government means from 2015, deliveries in urban areas will be cut from six to three days a week. Rural deliveries won't be affected, but as many as half of the company's workforce could be made redundant.

"This came as a pretty big shock to postal workers who weren't advised before hearing this on the news," says Postal Workers Union southern region president John Maynard.

Postal workers knew something would have to give eventually, but thought negotiations were still ongoing – a letter from Communications Minister Amy Adam to the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union dated Tuesday even said as much.

Mail volumes are falling 8 percent every year, with the rise of broadband and smartphones.

"People don't use the mail service anymore – I think that's incredibly sad [but] that's the reality," says NZ Post chief executive Brian Roche.

"This is not going to go away, and the deed permits us to make some changes, which I think are long overdue."

Mr Maynard however says there's more NZ Post could have done to protect postal workers' jobs.

"One of the major problems we had here in 1997 was the Postal Services Act under the National government allowing private mail companies to come in and cherry-pick the mail," he says.

"They now have something like 10 percent of the mail volume, and NZ Post estimated this is something like $20 million to $50 million of lost revenue to NZ Post."

Mr Maynard claims subsidies to private mail providers are also cutting into NZ Post's revenue, which the company hasn't bothered to fight, and that announcing the cutbacks so far in advance will only serve to "trigger further lack of confidence in NZ Post".

"It's making people feel less engaged with the postal service, and we wonder whether further down the track this is preparing the company for privatisation."

He also says there are "private companies sitting in the wings waiting to pick up service".

"Bill English hasn't ruled out privatising NZ Post."

It's not just posties that are in line to lose their jobs – staff in the company's shops face being replaced with self-service kiosks.

"It's not just the posties that are going to change – the whole group needs to change," says Mr Roche.

"In 20 years' time, we're still going to be running a mail business but it's going to be significantly less than it's got now. We'll still be running our courier business in the form of CourierPost, and we'll still have a bank in the form of Kiwibank.

"So the group itself remains really strong – there is a future for mail – but we're not going to define that future by looking back."

NZ Post's last round of cuts in June saw nearly 100 jobs axed, mainly from its Wellington headquarters.

The delivery changes are scheduled to come into force on June 30, 2015.