TNT Post to create 400 new jobs

[Poshpost]

The Guardian, Wednesday 19 February 2014 http://www.theguardian.com/business/201 ... obs-london" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Postal group TNT is to create hundreds of new jobs under plans to double its workforce in London.

The announcement, ahead of the latest unemployment figures, will lead to 400 new posts in parts of the capital under expansion plans, which will see four new delivery units being opened.

TNT Post said it was focusing on creating opportunities for young and long-term unemployed, adding that the flexibility of its jobs were particularly appealing for local residents, women returning to work and school-leavers.

TNT's chief executive, Nick Wells, said: "We are passionate about creating jobs. These jobs have been filled by people who may have found it difficult to get back into, or even join, the workforce.

"We are committed to helping develop people's careers and our focus on training and development will not only benefit TNT Post employees, but also the wider business community."

TNT Post began an end-to-end delivery service in competition with Royal Mail in April 2012 in west London and has since extended its operations to south-west London and Manchester, with the intention of creating a nationwide delivery network to households across the UK by 2015.

The company has created 1,000 jobs in London, and says this will double to 2,000.

TNT's news comes as a report by the Jobs Economist predicts that the trend of people working shorter hours in the UK is likely to continue despite the economic recovery.

The report said around one in five employees now work in "mini jobs" of between 16 and 20 hours a week.

Jobs Economist's director, John Philpott, said: "A sustained economic recovery is likely to see a much faster rate of full-time job creation and help reduce under-employment, but it would be wrong to assume that this will reverse the trend towards shorter working hours.

"Although the UK continues to be characterised as having an ingrained long hours work culture, the reality has been an ongoing structural shift towards a shorter hours work culture which is likely to continue even in better economic times."

Unemployment has been falling for months; there was a reduction of 167,000 in the quarter to November, bringing the total to 2.32 million.

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http://uk.news.yahoo.com/tnt-post-steps ... ml#ztH0khT" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

TNT Post steps up challenge to Britain's Royal Mail

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's second-biggest postal company TNT Post is to double its London workforce to 2,000 this year as it steps up its challenge to the dominance of Royal Mail .

TNT Post, owned by Dutch mail group PostNL , wants to establish a complete British delivery network by 2015, providing nationwide competition on the last leg of deliveries for the first time in Royal Mail's centuries of service.

The new entrant began its end-to-end delivery service, which involves collecting, sorting and delivering post without using recently privatised Royal Mail at all, in April 2012.

As well as Manchester in northern England, it now serves central, west and south west London, with the new jobs being created to lead expansion in the capital.

Royal Mail has said that such competition could threaten its ability to sustain a six-days-a-week universal service. Its concern is that TNT Post can target delivery of only the most profitable parts of the post and ignore the rest.

Across the rest of Britain, TNT Post collects and sorts post before handing it over to Royal Mail for delivery.

TNT Post's ambitions took a big step forward in December when PostNL signed a joint venture with Lloyds Banking Group's mid-market private equity group LDC to fund the expansion of its British delivery service. PostNL has a 40 percent stake in the partnership.

[motch]

The continued rise of the minimum waged part-time working week, with top-up benefits to be able to live/survive? possible workfare as well?