An Post hope to stamp out 1300 workers

An Post employees in Mullingar and surrounding rural areas will be asked in the coming days if they wish to take part in the voluntary redundancy programme announced by An Post on Tuesday of this week. The postal group intends to reduce its 10,000 strong workforce by 1300 over the next three years and are currently inviting expressions of interest for voluntary redundancy, although a spokesperson for Ireland's leading postal company said it was impossible identify what local areas would be affected:"It is something that is being rolled out over the next three years so at the moment there is no question of being able to identify what areas would be affected.We are currently putting out the feelers to see how people will react to it, we won't be axing anybody," said a spokesperson for An Post. The company is seeking 250 redundancies as the first part of the three-year redundancy programme. An Post which has over twelve hundred post offices and 200 post masters nationwide, are hoping to realign the company structure in line with a new business reality - where mail volumes are down 10% year-on-year.The staffing cuts would apply across all levels of the company nationwide, including headquarters, collection, retail, and processing. Last year a total of 351 employees lost their jobs due to a change in programmes and automation. Redundancies from next year on are expected to be on a voluntary basis, though the terms have not yet been revealed.