Post office closure’s handling under fire
The Paget sub-post office was closed by Government without any union consultation, fuelling “extremely low” morale among postal workers.
Branding the surprise move disrespectful, Chris Furbert, president of the Bermuda Industrial Union, pointed out that the BIU and the Bermuda Public Services Union had been involved in the decision a year ago to close sub-post offices in St David’s, Harrington Sound and Somerset Bridge.
“Is the One Bermuda Alliance now trying to send a message that they are going to make decisions without any dialogue with the unions?” Mr Furbert asked, vowing that Government was “in for a rocky ride”.
“We will not accept this from an OBA Government, or any Government,” he said, calling himself “shocked and amazed that this kind of thing continues to happen in 2015”.
The remarks followed last Friday’s notification from the Cabinet Office that the Paget post office would close on May 29 as part of a strategy of streamlining operations.
According to that statement, four staff would be relocated with no redundancies.
But Mr Furbert expressed disappointment that the BIU had not been informed until a call from postmaster general Wayne Smith a couple of hours before the announcement.
“In 2006 we embraced restructuring,” division president Larry Holder added. “We looked at it as a renaissance, a rebirth. Today the situation looks like reincarnation — like they’re waiting for us to die before they do anything.”
Government has cited the need for “revenue generation and becoming a more innovative, customer focused and sustainable postal service”.
However, Mr Holder said workers were asking what plan for profitability that Government had for them.
“Where is it? It seems like the plan for profitability is ‘shrink for survival’,” he said.
Mr Furbert said there had been a joint consultation committee held on March 31 at which the postmaster general announced “the potential closure of a couple more sub-post offices — just the potential”.
Minutes from that meeting show that Mr Smith had been tasked by Cabinet Secretary Marc Telemaque with writing a memo on “the direction of the post office”.
According to those minutes, Premier Michael Dunkley had “expressed a desire to close additional sub-post offices” earlier in the year — but Mr Smith had said he needed to perform a full analysis of the impact of closing the three previous offices, which shut down on October 31, 2014.
The minutes have Mr Dunkley requesting that the memo be drawn up, telling the postmaster general that “we don’t have the luxury of time”.
In addition to the Paget post facility, Mr Dunkley is said to have suggested that the Southampton and Crawl post offices also be closed, while Mr Smith apparently recommended keeping the existing infrastructure to generate revenue.
Bermuda’s post offices have fallen behind electronic messaging and other services, according to Mr Dunkley’s remarks last year, with the Spending and Government Efficiency (SAGE) Commission describing the existing model of business as no longer sustainable.
Responding to Bermuda Industrial Union charges that their labour representatives had been left out of the decision to close the Paget sub-post office, a Government spokesman said last night it was the BIU who had failed to appear at a meeting.
The Bermuda Post Office “followed the same process that was followed a year ago when it closed three sub-post offices”, the spokesman said.
Representatives from the BIU and the Bermuda Public Services Union had been invited to attend “an important meeting to discuss the way forward for the Bermuda Post Office”.
“The BPSU were unable to attend and sent two representatives,” the spokesman said. “The BIU indicated that they would be there with two persons in attendance. The BIU did not turn up.
“Attempts were made to determine who would be attending on behalf of the BIU. We advised the BPSU representatives who attended that the Paget sub-post office would be closed at the end of May and then drove to meet with the president of the BIU postal division, to inform him of same.”
