Bill Shorten Ready To Help Australia Post Staff Find Jobs

Australia Post is going to slash around 1900 jobs. The decision comes after it suffered a $500 million loss in its letters business.

Post has set up $190 million to compensate the 1900 voluntary redundancies. According to its managing director and group chief executive officer Ahmed Fahour, those who want to keep working at the company will be redeployed into more profitable sectors of the business.

According to reports, the company has suffered a $1.5-billion loss in the last five years. Fahour said that the company would require much fewer staff in future letters business. He said that the company had reached the “tipping point” where the business was unsustainable with reform.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten asked for bipartisan support for workers who had opted for redundancy. “It is really, really sad news for people who may have worked for Australia Post for 10, 20 and 30 years,” The Australian quoted Shorten, “What I also believe though, is that the government has an obligation to help these people transition to other work.”

Shorten said that Australia could not be one of those nations which told its people that they, in their late 40s and 50s, had become expendable. He said that the country should not tell them that they had nothing left to contribute.

According to the Opposition Leader, the government has an obligation to help those opting for redundancy find new jobs. Shorten said that Labor was ready to cooperate with the government during the process as there was “nothing more important than getting someone into a job.”

Herald Sun reported that Fahour’s job was to “slow the death of the letters division” while building the parcel division. Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has accepted Fahour’s plans to change the way the company operates.

Post is going to have the stamp price increased to $1.it will also offer a “two tier” delivery service. It is learnt that Australian citizens on pension do not have to pay the increased prices for stamps.

The British government sold Royal Mail for $3.3 billion in 2013. Japan Post, on the other hand, offered $6.6 billion in February to take over Toll Holdings, a120-year-old Australian logistics company.