Restructuring events
European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
The Norwegian postal service Posten Norge (Norway Post) will initiate a restructuring in 2017 which will cut 550 jobs throughout the country, in response to a political decision to abolish the current overnight mail service (known as A-post). Posten Norge, owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications, has a monopoly on distribution of letters weighing less than 50g throughout the country. The current A-post system, which guarantees overnight delivery for at least 85 percent of the mail, will be combined with the B-post system, resulting in a new system that will normally deliver post within two days. The current nine mail-sorting terminals will be reduced to three. This entails large cuts at the terminals in Bergen, Evenes, Molde, Stavanger, Stokke and Trondheim. Posten Norge estimates that 550 employees or 400 full-time equivalents will be affected. The cuts will be based on seniority.
The background for the restructuring is a substantial fall in the number of letters sent and consequently in revenue. The (conservative) Government's reform proposal which included the abolishment of the overnight mail system was sent to the parliament in May 2016 and formally accepted by the parliament on 29 November 2016. The new system is to be in place by 1 January 2018. Posten Norge and trade union Postkom requested that the parliamentary committee set a timeframe for the restructuring so that the company could use the time until 2018 to conduct the restructuring in a "justifiable" manner that would provide new jobs for as many of those affected as possible. However, a specific timeframe was not set by the Parliament. The Government has allocated NOK 300 million (€33.4 million) less in its 2017 state budget than what Posten Norge estimates is needed to sustain today's mail system, with the likely consequence that the restructuring will have to be sped up. Trade union Postkom has been highly critical of the Government's postal policies in general and in particular of its decision to cut overnight mail ownership and to reduce funding already in 2017. Trade Union leader Odd Christian Øverland in Postkom has described the way the state operates as an owner as "disappointing" and "embarrassing". He underlines that the cuts are dramatic for those affected, but notes that Posten Norge has undergone a continuous restructuring process for the past 15 years, cutting about 1,000 jobs every year, while those affected have largely found new employment either within or outside the company. The company will try to provide new jobs internally for as many as possible, but acknowledges that this will be more difficult than in previous years.
Eurofound (2016), Posten Norge, Internal restructuring in Norway, factsheet number 89246, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://dev.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/89246.
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