While labour costs as a proportion of postal operators’ total costs varies significantly, it is higher than 40% of total costs in all but five countries (out of 22 studied countries). Notably, however, many operators with the highest labour costs per employee, such as in Norway, France and the Netherlands, managed to keep their labour costs relatively low as a proportion of total costs.

Cullen International’s latest research provides information on the labour force characteristics and labour-related costs of the postal universal service providers (USPs) in 22 European countries.

Due to the structure of postal delivery networks, the postal sector is typically labour-intensive, with a high proportion of labour costs compared to total costs for traditional postal operators, which were previously or are currently publicly owned companies. Even after privatisation, some incumbent postal operators maintained a proportion of employees with civil servant status, whose rights and obligations differ from those applicable to private employees.

In the last ten years, the sector has witnessed significant reductions in staff numbers for the former national monopolists, driven by efficiency improvements and growing automation. The USPs have sought to introduce changes to employment conditions by rebalancing the number of employees with civil servant status and introducing more flexible labour contracts.

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