“It gets worse and worse, because you have to wait longer and longer.” Francisco Rosa is a resident of Santa Ponça, the largest population center in the municipality of Calvià (Mallorca). Like him, more and more residents are affected by the Post Office service, which – in the words of its own workers – is dying in the archipelago and especially in this town of 10,736 inhabitants located in the west of the island. Its citizens report daily delays when receiving mail, notifications, letters and parcels. The unions point out that Santa Ponça’s workforce is currently at 60%, a figure similar to the Balearic average, which ranges between 60 and 70% of employees.
Specifically, the archipelago has 117 Post Office offices and one postal employee for every 1,200 inhabitants. In total, about 900 workers on all the islands, including those dedicated to social services for vulnerable groups, banking accessibility, digital services and with special attention to people over 65 years of age, who represent more than 16% of the population. However, from CCOO, the majority union of Correos, they warn of the “excessive adjustment” of the workforce in the municipalities of the archipelago, which is resulting in a worsening of working conditions, as well as a late receipt of notifications – including notices doctors and the Administration – and packages from citizens. If this situation is not unblocked, the workers are contemplating starting mobilizations.
“They can’t cope”
Manuel Dopico is one of the neighbors affected by this problem. “What I can say is that you used to have mailboxes inside the house, on the door or on the stairs. Now, they have been moved to the Costa de la Calma, so imagine for those who don’t live nearby. “You have to move on purpose,” says this neighbor, recalling that the door-to-door service made it easier for residents to do much of their postal work as opposed to the current multi-home mailboxes. “This is how the services are as a result of the elimination of personnel. “They can’t cope,” laments Manuel.
What I can say is that you used to have mailboxes inside the house, on the door or on the stairs. Now, they have been moved to the Costa de la Calma, so imagine for those who don’t live nearby. You have to move on purpose
Manuel Dopico
— Resident of Santa Ponça
For his part, Francisco Rosa, who has lived in Santa Ponça for 54 years, regrets the decrease in the town’s Post Office staff. Sitting on the terrace of one of the cafeterias located in front of the office, he remembers that before, postal workers “came here.” “They had breakfast and we talked. Now none of them are coming, they don’t have time. With new technologies everything has changed. Even at the medical center, which is the best in Mallorca, you used to go and have an analysis done right away. Now they give it to you for two or three weeks,” he adds.
Other residents of Santa Ponça regret that the appearance of the Internet has meant that “not so many handwritten letters are sent anymore” and that the Post Office service is no longer needed in the same way as years ago.
Work overload
“We need to reinforce the workforce, especially now that Christmas is coming and activity is increasing,” says Daniel Bauzá, CCOO union delegate at Correos. After five years immersed in a permanent management, social and labor crisis, the unionist complains that, as in other Autonomous Communities, the situation is “especially serious in the peripheral neighborhoods, in rural areas and in smaller towns.” ”, such as Santa Ponça, Manacor, Maó, Eivissa, Sant Antoni de Portmany, Sóller and Ciutadella, where staff numbers are between 40 and 60% of the usual between delivery drivers and office employees.
CCOO denounces that the situation becomes especially serious in the peripheral neighborhoods, in rural areas and in smaller towns, such as Santa Ponça, Manacor, Maó, Eivissa, Sant Antoni de Portmany, Sóller and Ciutadella, where the figures for personnel are between 40 and 60% of the usual
Along these lines, Bauzá criticizes the “work overload” to which workers are exposed, especially in summer, by having to fill vacancies for those who are on vacation, make longer delivery routes or suffer the increase in waiting times and long lines in offices. In Santa Ponça, in fact, going to your office often means waiting for a line of clients that practically reaches the street. All this despite the 2024-2028 Strategic Agreement signed on July 22 between the Government, SEPI, Correos, CCOO and UGT, which contemplates financing the public postal service and the Services of General Economic Interest (SIEG) for 400 million of euros (250 million and 150 million, respectively) to be included in the General State Budgets (PGE) of 2025.
An “insufficient” agreement
For CCOO, however, this agreement “lacks the necessary ambition and is insufficient to reverse the position of weakness that Correos has accumulated in the market as a result of the erratic policies of the previous president” of the company, in reference to Juan Manuel Serrano. , whom UGT, for its part, came to describe as “the worst president of all time, in the entire history of Correos”, based on the accounts of recent years presented by the public company. Not in vain, in 2022 Correos presented a turnover of 1,962 million euros, with a drop of 5.7% compared to the previous year. Its operating result was a loss of 286.5 million, which meant doubling the red numbers for the 2021 financial year, which amounted to 143.9 million. Last year, Serrano was replaced by Pedro Saura.
As a consequence of this, the delegates of CCOO and UGT Correos in the Balearic Islands gathered in front of the Balearic Islands Delegation and began a process of mobilizations throughout the State to demand that the Postal Directorate, with Serrano then at the head, They ceased “the scrapping policies” of the public operator and demanded a “sustainable, effective, modern and efficient” public postal model. Likewise, they demanded that the Government define its public postal project, both in its aspect as a provider of the oldest public service in the country, the postal service, and in its aspect as a strategic company “generating employment, social structuring and economic growth.” .
Last July, before the approval of the Strategic Agreement, CCOO presented to the central Executive a document with 100 proposals that would allow Correos to be rescued from its “serious financial crisis” and improve the provision of the postal service. In this sense, the union demanded 3,350 million euros to ensure the provision of the Universal Postal Service (SPU) and finance the strategic plan that repositions it in the market, and 1,500 million euros for a new labor framework for the 50,000 employees. of Post Office.
In terms of personnel, CCOO demands a plan to rejuvenate the workforce, incentivized departures, job offers and updating of recruitment pools that guarantee the coverage of all jobs, as well as an improvement in salaries and the regulation of the professional career.
For the union, seeking the viability of Correos “by resorting to the old formula of classic reconversions, based on injections of public money combined with job cuts and expense adjustments, is a strategic error.” And they add: “This approach, focused on balancing the income statement and EBITDA [indicador financiero que mide la rentabilidad de una empresa antes de deducir los impuestos, intereses, depreciaciones y amortizacionesen]instead of repositioning Correos in the market and promoting the growth of activity, completely contradicts the philosophy of the 2024–2028 Strategic Agreement. Furthermore, it poses a high risk of generating a scenario of increasing tension, something that is completely undesirable in the company’s current delicate situation.”
Correos defends the “quality” of its service
In the face of criticism from the union entity, Correos assures that it is guaranteeing “the quality of service and the delivery of products within the deadlines agreed with customers in the Balearic Islands.” In statements to elDiario.es, company sources indicate that the operator “takes the necessary measures to organize work based on the needs in its units.” “Therefore, the adaptation of the means to the needs is a permanent action for Correos, in which optimization and efficiency criteria are applied, without forgetting the commitment to quality levels in the provision of the universal postal service that the company must achieve,” they add.
“Correos, as a public company, has the obligation to efficiently allocate its resources, both human, logistical and technological, so, depending on production, which fluctuates, it adapts its staff and structure to the level of real activity” , insist the same sources, who assure that there is a provision for contracts to meet the increases that may occur due to the Christmas campaign. In any case, they assert, the determination of resources “is a dynamic action, so, if new needs are detected, the necessary means are assigned to offer a universal postal service that meets the quality requirements to which Correos is committed. ”.
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