2023-12-14 16:40:00
Strongly questioned by the publishers, the Minister of the Economy also clarified that he had “courteously but firmly declined the request for a meeting from some of them”. He made it clear that he did not appreciate their attacks. “I won’t add insult to injury,” he said. “Publishers do not have to write the specifications due to a risk of conflict of interest. They might apply,” he recalled.
The minister did not answer the question from Michaël Freilich (N-VA) as to why the concession, prepared for a year by the FPS Economy, had been abandoned. “I know why we are stopping the concession, it’s because bpost did not win the call for tenders,” said the Antwerp MP.
Newspaper distribution: De Croo government ends concession, “it’s a catastrophic decision for the press”
MP Josy Arens (Les Engagés) castigated the government for being “the gravedigger of the post office and public services”.
“The boss is made a cuckold like us by the State.”
Threats of job losses
On the bpost side, caution is required. Management and the unions set up a working group on Thursday, responsible for assessing as best as possible the impact on the postal company of the government’s decision. Both camps recognize that at this stage it is too early to determine the consequences. Even if it seems obvious that a certain number of jobs are threatened. According to Thierry Tasset, general secretary of CGSP Post, the distribution of newspapers and periodicals by bpost represents work for around 2,000 full-time equivalents. “There will be an impact, but it is difficult to anticipate. From an operational point of view, resorting to commercial contracts with publishers will be very complicated,” he commented, referring to the geographical reorganization that this will entail, while maintaining a correct profitability threshold.
Thierry Tasset explains this relative union serenity by “the end of year period” which is very busy in terms of parcel delivery. “A social movement would not pay off,” he tells us. And to make it clear that management is just as much a victim as the staff of the government’s choices. “The boss is made a cuckold like us by the State,” he says. “The consequence of the government’s decision is that a notice of a common front strike has been filed with a deadline of January 2.”
Like publishers, unions are waiting for more information. “There are 120 publishers in the country. Even they don’t know what they will receive. This can only create injustice,” continues Thierry Tasset.
On the stock market side, the announcement of the abandonment of the concession has so far had no impact on the price. And yet, bpost’s revenues for the press concession amounted to 265 million euros in 2022, including 175 million in state subsidies and 90 million paid by publishers.
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