An Post Accepts Assessors Report on Sustaining Progress

7 June 2005

An Post has confirmed to the Labour Relations Commission its acceptance in full of the Assessors’ Report on the payment of Sustaining Progress, issued last week. The company will pay five per cent of Sustaining Progress to all staff, backdated to January 1st 2005, at the end of this month.

Payment of this portion of Sustaining Progress will cost An Post €24 m in 2005.

An Post accepts the Assessors’ Report as a fair and reasonable reflection of the overall financial, commercial and employment circumstances in An Post and urges the company’s unions to engage immediately in discussions on the cost-offsetting measures necessary to fund the balance of the payments under Sustaining Progress.

In this context, the Assessors have highlighted a price increase as a critical issue in relation to the generation of profits to finance these payments and clearly this is an issue which must be considered by the company and its unions.

The Company expressed disappointment at the response by Mr Steven Fitzpatrick, General Secretary of the Communications Workers’ Union, on behalf of the An Post Group of Unions, rejecting the findings of the Assessor’s Report in its entirety, particularly given the fact that it was the unions who sought the appointment of the Assessors in the first instance.

In view of the Union’s rejection of the Assessors’ Report, the issue of payment of the remaining terms of Sustaining Progress has been referred to the Labour Court for adjudication.