At its meeting today, the Swiss Post Board of Directors approved a new, uniform redundancy plan. It also agreed to the package of measures for 2011 which also includes the salary measures for employees who work in accordance with the Swiss Post CEC. The decision-making bodies of the Kommunikation trade union and the transfair employees’ association have already approved the measures. The package offers Swiss Post employees additional perspectives aimed at securing employment, regardless of any specific operational change.

Until now, Swiss Post has applied a so-called redundancy agreement to small reorganizations. If the reorganizations affected a larger number of employees, the social partners (Kommunikation trade union, transfair employees’ association and Swiss Post) met to negotiate a redundancy plan. This always resulted in different solutions for the redundancy agreements and redundancy plans.

New, uniform redundancy plan

More than 20 different redundancy plans have been negotiated since the Swiss Post Collective Employment Contract (CEC) came into force, but a single, uniform redundancy plan will be applied from the next year. Any additional negotiations between social partners as a result of company changes will in future only take place if more than 450 employees and 250 FTEs are affected.

The new redundancy plan comprises four service packages. The first covers the support provided while employees seek a new position both inside and outside Swiss Post. The further three packages of measures relate to the possibility of early departure in connection with further training measures, taking up self-employment or providing support by a recruitment consultant.

Employees who are 62 or older and affected by a restructuring are obliged to take retirement. Until they reach statutory retirement age and assuming they work on a 100% basis, Swiss Post will pay CHF 1,700 per month into their individual savings in the pension fund.

Additional measures for 2011

In addition to the new redundancy plan, a comprehensive package of measures will enter into force. It comprises elements for further training, early retirement, a semi-retirement model and wage-related measures. Employees subject to the Swiss Post CEC will receive a 1% salary increase as of January 2011. Owing to the good Group result expected for 2010, Swiss Post will take on the total employee contribution (1%) towards reorganization of the Swiss Post pension fund and reserve 0.8% of the total salary amount for individual performance-related measures. The package offers Swiss Post employees additional perspectives aimed at securing employment, regardless of any specific operational change.