By Larissa Ham
Australia Post should hire permanent staff in its struggling parcel service and stamp out cash-in-hand workers to improve poor delivery standards, says the union representing postal workers.
Communication Workers Union assistant national secretary Martin O'Nea says obsessive cost cutting has led Australia Post to "a position of mediocrity," where overworked contractors often palm off parcel delivery to sub-contractors receiving as little as $14 an hour. Small payments per parcel sometimes resulted in rushed workers leaving cards rather than delivering properly.
Australia Post's parcel service is struggling to keep up, says union.Credit: Jessica Shapiro
"A lot of them are just transient workers – students and so on who have no loyalty to Australia Post, and they're treated differently by Australia Post," Mr O'Nea said.
"We've been given evidence that a lot of these sub-contractors are cash-in-hand workers. It's happening out there and at times it suits management to turn a blind eye to it."
But Australia Post's general manager of external affairs Alex Twomey said Australia Post had used contractors for more than 200 years - "we use a lot of these people and we always have."
Contractors make up the majority of the parcel service and 12 per cent of Australia Post's wider workforce.
Mr Twomey said it was unlikely the service would ever employ all of its own staff for parcel deliveries because of the surges in demand at peak times, and because of rural areas, where several things - such as milk, post and newspapers - were often delivered by the one person.
However Australia Post was working on a long-term plan to shift some staff from the declining letters service into the booming parcel area.
Mr Twomey said contractors must run their businesses by all legal obligations, including the proper payment of employees, and paying sub-contractors cash-in-hand would be illegal.
"If they (the union) has got a specific case we want to hear about it. I'm not aware of any current case."
The union claims follow a large number of complaints from MySmallBusiness readers over Christmas delivery times - especially before Christmas - and contractors failing to knock on doors, even if customers were home.
"Regardless of whether it looks like somebody's home, their job is to attempt delivery. How hard is it to press a doorbell? Failing to attempt delivery is not doing their job, plain and simple," commented reader Looloo.
It's happening out there and at times it suits management to turn a blind eye to it.
"When the contractors are too lazy to knock on my door ... I'm the one who has to drive for 45 minutes to and back from the only Australia Post depot that now stores parcels in the vicinity."
Earlier this week, Alex Twomey defended Australia Post, saying the service had prepared well for Christmas. But he acknowledged the online-inspired rush had been a "learning process" for the entire industry.
Mr Twomey also said that contractors leaving cards instead of attempting to deliver a parcel was being addressed.
The union's Mr O'Nea said the average contractor only received between $1 and $1.30 for each parcel delivered, or attempted delivery, making speed crucial.
Mr O'Nea, who estimates he sorted 5.5 million parcels during his own 12 years at Australia Post, some of that as a parcel deliverer, said poor payment was just one of many problems Australia Post must tackle. Others included distribution centres overflowing with parcels and a refusal to pay for longer overtime shifts during peak times such as Christmas.
And because resources were being taken out of the declining letters service, standards were also slipping there, he said.
Mr Twomey denied this, saying the letters business was still one of the best in the world, and was meeting its community service obligations.
The union was happy with some of the gains made under Australia Post chief executive Ahmed Fahour, Mr O'Nea said, such as tenders being taken for new wet - weather gear for posties, additional investment for storage cages and parcel locker trials.
"We acknowledge he is trying to change the culture," Mr O'Nea said.
In October Mr Fahour said online shopping was a "new core" for Australia Post as the organisation transformed to cope with the internet and digital capabilities.
He said 70 per cent of the volume of its parcel business was generated by "a mouse click". But Mr O'Nea said many "old school" managers still didn't understand online shopping.
Talking to an area manager a few years ago about the potential of eBay for Australia Post, Mr O'Nea said he was told "there's no money in eBay".
"I pointed out that Australia Post basically have a monopoly on eBay."
He believes the number of parcels will triple within the next three years, but said Australia Post could lose out to the competition if it didn't shape up.
Australia Post has already sold part of its business - the packaging distribution side - to competitor DHL.
Mr O'Nea said some post offices and unhappy eBay sellers were now waiting up to two weeks for boxes and other packaging materials to arrive.
"Now you have the direct competition who are controlling the supply of that product to post services," he said.
Mr Twomey said Australia Post had sold that part last August, because it was no longer core to the business. The nature of the industry was that postal services often worked together, he said. For instance Australia Post carries some DHL parcels on certain legs.
Initial problems with the packaging distribution handover were regrettable, but had now been addressed, Mr Twomey said.
lham@theage.com.au
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