The Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, is expected to come under pressure from delegates at the Communications Workers' Union (CWU) to resist plans by the European Commission to accelerate deregulation of the postal market. The union's general secretary, Mr Con Scanlon, has warned that changes proposed by the Commissioner for Internal Markets, Mr Frederik Bolkestein, could open up almost 50 per cent of An Post's business to competition by 2005.
"There is a bitter debate raging within the European Union over how far and how fast the next wave of liberalisation should go," Mr Scanlon has told delegates to the CWU conference in Tralee. Up to 47 amendments had been proposed to the legislation by the European Parliament but 36 had been rejected. "Effectively the Commission has turned its nose up at the Parliament and said it wants to rush ahead with opening the market to competition in the shortest possible timeframe."
Because a much higher proportion of the Republic's mail is international than in other EU states, Mr Scanlon said there was a special case to be made. "So while the rest of Europe is debating as to whether opening up a further 20 per cent of the market to competition is too much, too soon, Ireland by the very same directive is facing the prospect of having 46 per cent of the market opened to competition, if the Commission has its way.
"This cannot be allowed to happen and the Government and the Minister need to proactively defend Ireland's interests - and far more vociferously than before," he said.
At present An Post has a monopoly of letter and parcel post weighing under 350 grams. Mr Bolkestein wants this reduced to 25 grams and the Council of Ministers has been discussing a compromise figure of 50 grams.
The Minister is likely to be applauded for publishing the Postal (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill this week. It clears the way for a transformation agreement and employee share ownership trust in An Post similar to the Eircom deal. However, delegates representing members in Eircom called for a re-evaluation of the Eircom partnership structures after complaining of lack of management commitment in key areas such as information technology.
Meanwhile, three delegates representing staff in call centres said there were difficulties organising because of the anti-union attitudes of management. Staff were monitored closely on breaks, had difficulty obtaining information on basic entitlements and pay, and frequently had holiday arrangements changed or cancelled at short notice.
