The postal industry is faced with a drastic change, as letters, invoices and publications move online and become digital. However, Posti believes it can create thousands of new jobs in the postal industry in other, replacing tasks.

- I believe that Posti can create at least 3,000 new jobs in the parcel and logistics business over the next five years. Having a competitive collective agreement is essential for the creation of new jobs. If our agreement is not competitive, others will get the work, says Jukka Rosenberg, Senior Vice President of Posti's Logistics and Parcel services.

Examples of new businesses are food logistics, outsourcing and partnerships in warehousing, logistics services for the public sector, new services for consumers, and a variety of value-added services.

According to Mr. Rosenberg, new jobs could be found, for example, in Posti's warehouse and transport functions.

- The work could also be in-house logistics, which means operating on the customer's premises instead of the Posti warehouse, Mr. Rosenberg explains.

A chance for personnel to develop their competence

Digitalization and new kinds of customer demands are bound to have an effect on the job descriptions and competence requirements of Posti employees. It is important to recognize the needs of competence development and create the preconditions for development and successful performance in new tasks for the personnel. This means that the job descriptions will have to become more diverse and flexible.

- By flexible we mean, for instance, that a mail deliverer could work at the warehouse if there is not enough mail to be delivered. Or a driver could continue his/her shift at the store and shelve the goods after transportation. Some of our current employment contracts are building-specific, which means our personnel cannot even move between buildings, let alone tasks, Mr. Rosenberg says.

The new home services are an example of services of the future. In practice, this could mean, for example, that the person who delivers the mail or a meal to an elderly person would also help them with daily chores at the same visit.​

- The change security agreement must also be renewed to make it support our competitiveness. In the current model, we have to transfer the monetary lump sum compensation to Posti's service prices. This has a negative effect on our competitiveness, Mr. Rosenberg says. At the moment, an employee who has worked for Posti for more than 10 years will receive their salary during the six-month period of notice, as well as an additional compensation for six months.

However, if we want to make any of these changes, we need to have a more flexible collective agreement.

- Without flexibility, we cannot create new jobs, Mr. Rosenberg points out. Therefore, I hope that everyone will give their support for these changes. Posti is the largest logistics company in Finland in terms of net sales, which means we have immense potential.

On September 30, 2015, Posti employed 16,406 persons in Finland and 21,187 in the entire Group.

Posti's objectives in the collective agreement negotiations:

1. Replacing the existing change security agreement with the Uusi Polku support program
2. More flexibility in shift planning
3. A simpler pay system
4. The option of using outsourcing during peak periods

Source: Posti