Publication of the SDC Project "The world of work in the postal sector in 2030"
The Postal Sector Evolution WG have just finalised the project "The world of work in the postal sector in 2030" which enabled the elaboration of 13 postal characters who could exist in the 5 scenarios on the postal sector in 2030.
The final report of this project is available in English, French and German.
Publication of the SDC Project "Postal skills and Work environment in the Digital era" final report
The Training, Health and Safety Working Group of the Social Dialogue Committee for the European Postal Sector (SDC) carried out the project: Postal Skills and Work Environment in the Digital Era.
The project allowed an in-depth analysis of two main areas: the impact of digitisation on skills and training and the impact of digitisation on the working environment. The project addressed the following job areas: Back-Office operations, Delivery operations, Post-Offices networks. It enabled a joint reflection on the skills needed in a constantly changing work context, bearing in mind the impact of phenomena such as digitisation and e-commerce on the sector. The study confirms the key role of employees’ training and retraining in managing the profound changes affecting the sector, notably digitisation.
Skills needs are becoming more and more strategic, especially for new products and services affecting the postal sector due to the diversification process. Particularly strategic, moreover, is the growing importance of soft skills for the performance of new products and services, very often of proximity. The project addressed the evolving relationships between digital transformation, new skills and work environments. Alongside the digitalisation, the study also focused on the future impact of COVID-19 on the postal sector, an issue which is closely intertwined with digital acceleration. The project also addressed the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the methodologies of training and retraining programmes. The study covers the changes in tasks, skills and work environments within three key Occupational Areas of the postal sector: Back-Office operations, Delivery operations, Post-Offices networks. The study was based on the implementation of multiple data collection tools, combining desk and field research, primary and secondary sources. Stakeholders provided feedback during the organised Seminars for each Occupational Area. The Skills Reference and Work Environment Framework Report (SWEF) summarises main findings for each Area. The Final Conference focused on cross-cutting trends and comparisons between the Occupational Profiles. The Final Report can be found here in English.
The world of work in the postal sector in 2030
Faced with an acceleration of the transformation, at the digital age, the SDC has increasingly focused its attention on new activities as well as on anticipating the evolutions ahead. In the future, this transformation will certainly be even quicker, at the same time that crisis comparable to Covid-19 are now part of our daily life and could foster ruptures or even faster evolutions. In view of its large workforce covering a wide range of activities, the postal sector is particularly impacted by the evolutions of the wider environment and context. The new project aims at analysing how postal jobs will evolve in the different scenarios in order to operationalize the 5 scenarios and make them even more concrete and applicable to the sector. The objective is to explore what will be the reality of key postal job areas in the different scenarios for 2030 in terms in particular of tasks, available tools, working environment and conditions.
The objective of the project which encompasses representatives from postal companies and unions from 27 EU Member builds on the previous project “Trend research for the postal sector in 2030”, where European social partners have jointly developed 5 different foresight scenarios on what the sector could look like in 2030. The objective of this follow-up project is to go one step further and make the scenarios more operational by drawing the postal characters who will exist in these 5 different realities of the postal sector.
The participants will consider what could be the main tasks and missions for identified profiles in the framework of a typical working day. The specificities of the operating conditions will also be considered as well as the tools, in particular digital ones, to be used for each function. This will enable to analyze what postal jobs will be created, will disappear or will evolve in these 5 scenarios. Besides the postal characters, it will also be important to consider some other key characters who will exist in the different scenarios, especially the consumers, who will be in interaction with the postal characters. The impact of the wider economic, regulatory, social environment will be essential to depict each character’s evolutions.
The consultant’s role will be two-folds:
1) the main objective is to support the participants with a relevant method to elaborate and develop these postal characters;
2) the second objective is to facilitate innovative and dynamic workshops, mainly facilitated digitally, which aim at having European social partners thinking out of the box and forward looking.
The consultant will work in close cooperation with the Steering committee consisting of employer and trade union representatives.
Further details can be found in the call for tender application. All interested applicants must send in their application, by 10 June 2021 at the latest, to europeanprojects@posteurop.org as POSTEUROP ensures the administrative management of this project and to margaux.meidinger@laposte.fr as project manager.
In the framework of the European social dialogue committee for the postal sector, the European social partners have launched a project on ‘Postal Skills and Work Environment in the Digital Era’ co-funded by the European Commission, which will run for 2 years (24 months) from February 2020 onwards. This project encompasses representatives from postal companies and unions from 27 EU Member states. For that purpose, they launch a call for tenders for external expertise.
The project has 2 key objectives: (1) to anticipate skills needs in the postal sector, by identifying labour shortages and future skills needed for specific postal occupational profiles; (2) to analyse the positive and negative consequences of digitalisation on working conditions for the identified occupational profiles.
The project seeks to assist the postal social partners to anticipate future skills needs with special regard to the digital ones. The project will assist in adapting social dialogue practices to accompany the postal transformation by addressing the consequences of digitalisation on work organisation patterns and working conditions.
In parallel, the project will enable social partners to exchange good practices in terms of training and re-training programmes and therefore to accompany the change process; it will allow social partners to issue recommendations for future training programmes. The project will also provide the social partners with a common reference framework of skills (digital and non-digital) needs in a time horizon of 3-5 years for specific postal job areas.
The European social partners in the postal sector are looking for external expertise to support them in their work on the above project objectives, for the 24-month duration. Specifically, they will
require an external consultancy to carry out research and analysis on the impact of digitalisation in Europe’s postal sector, assess and bring together good practices from the social partners at the European, national and company levels in training programmes, skills analysis and in dealing with the impact of digitalisation and work closely with the project steering group to bring all these areas of research together to contribute to the project implementation.
Further details can be found in the call for tender application to be found under this link. As UNI Europa ensures the administrative management of this project, all interested applicants must send in their application, by 27 March 2020 at the latest, to UNI Europa Post & Logistics Director, Dimitris Theodorakis at: dimitris.theodorakis@uniglobalunion.org.
20 years of European Social Dialogue
The European Social Dialogue Committee for the Postal Sector celebrated its 20th Anniversary at their Annual Plenary on 6 December 2019. On this occasion, the European social partners signed two important documents to mark the continuous dialogue: a “Joint contribution to the review of the postal services directive” and a “Joint declaration on training in the digital era”.
20th Anniversary of the Committee
2019 is a special year for the SDC as it celebrates 20 years of postal social dialogue at a time when the industry is transforming. On this occasion, high level speakers including Botond Szebeny, PostEurop Secretary general; Oliver Roethig, UNI Europa Regional secretary and Joerg Tagger, Head of Unit at DG Employment, underlined the successful results of the SDC over the last two decades and the strong involvement of both sides.
Postal services directive
The “Joint contribution to the postal services directive” review was adopted following the formal request made to the Committee by DG GROW. Participants had the opportunity to present this contribution to European Commission representatives who attended this event. With this joint document, the European social partners underline in particular “that the universal service is the core of the European regulatory framework for postal services.”
Training in the digital era
Following a two-year project on Social dialogue and Training in an enlarged Europe, the Committee formalised its main shared findings in a Joint Declaration on Training in the digital era. This declaration confirms the important role of the SDC and testifies to the awareness among the European social partners on the strategic importance of employees’ training to facilitate the change process and the diversification in the sector.
In this document, the European social partners agree that awareness of the importance of social dialogue at the national level is steadily increasing. In this regard, they acknowledge that the SDC deliverables contributed to the national discussions. Over the years, the Committee has gained in reputation among its members and European stakeholders thanks to its activities and the joint declarations signed. The project’s outcomes confirm that digitalisation has a strong impact on job functions at all level of the organisation. The declaration further underlines that training and upskilling in a lifelong learning perspective are essential for the employees to acquire the necessary skills, develop new competencies and offer new services, especially in an increasingly digitalised world
"Trend research for the postal Sector in 2030": project final report and communication booklet
The project "Trend research for the postal Sector was conducted in 2018-2019. It enabled to have European social partners elaborate 5 possible joint scenarios on the postal sector in 2030. It was also an opportunity to have highly interactive workshops, to brainstorm and think out of the box.
The results of the project, with in particular the scenarios and the methodology to elaborate them, are published in the project final report which is available in English and French.
In order to foster the communication on the scenarios, a communication booklet has also been published. It presents the 5 scenarios in a short and dynamic manner.
Publication of the Final report of the Training, Health & Safety project
The Final report of the project "Promoting European Social Dialogue in the Postal Sector in an enlarged Europe” is now published in EN, FR and DE.
The project was aimed primarily at analysing the digital transformation of the postal sector. The objective is to get first-hand information on how postal operators and trade unions have managed to support the increased digitalisation of their organisations with impacts on jobs and competences, on the work organisation as well as on training needs and methods.
A special focus was placed on the programmes of digital transformation put in place in terms of training and cultural evolution. In this framework, the needs in terms of digital skills and new jobs were in focus. The opportunities that the digital economy represents in terms of development of new activities, in particular the parcels’ ones, in view of the growing e-commerce market were also considered.
The project also focused on capacity-building activities to aise awareness and disseminate the work of the postal services social dialogue committee, in particular but not exclusively, in Central and Eastern Europe.
SDC Annual Plenary meeting, 4 December
On 4 December took place the annual Plenary meeting of the European social dialogue Committee for the postal sector.
Update on regulatory issues
At that occasion, R. Goulet from DG Grow gave an update on the latest regulatory initiatives. Copenhagen Economics presented the main outcomes of the study "Main developments in the postal sector 2013-2016".
Working groups activities
The two working groups of the SDC also presented their activities. The Training, Health & safety working group chair presented the outcomes of the project "Promoting social dialogue in an enlarged Europe" which had just been finalized as well as the upcomng funding demand.
The postal sector evolution working group chair presented the ongoing project "Trend research for the postal sector in 2030" with the consultant in charge of the project focusing on the main outputs.
Training project "Promoting social dialogue in an enlarged Europe" final conference, 3 December
On 3 December 2018 took place the final conference of the project "Promoting social dialogue in an enlarged Europee". This event gathered 60 employers' and trade unions' participants from several countries as well as high level représentatives from PostEurop, UNI and the European Commission.
The conference was opened by Botond Szebeny from PostEurop and Cornelia Broos from UNI Post & Logistics. Representatives from DG Employment and from DG Connect intervened respectively on social dialogue and on digital skills.
Postal Sector Evolution working group project 'Trend research for the postal sector in 2030" - Second workshop Bonn, 2-3 October
On 2-3 October, the SDC members had the opportunity to take part to the second workshop of the project "Trend research for the postal sector in 2030". This meeting started with a very interesting visit of Deutsche Post DHL Innovation Center.
The workshop sessions in smaller groups then focused on describing the key factors and enabled once again many exchanges between European social partners.
SDC meetings 3 July
Training, Health & Safety and Postal Sector Evolution working groups meetings
On 3 July took place the meetings of the Training, Health & Safety and Postal Sector Evolution working groups meetings. This enabled in particular to have the consultant WIK to present the study it has just launched “Dynamic Development of Cross-Border E-Commerce through Efficient Parcel Delivery”.
Francesco Costa chair of the Training group also an update on the ongoing project "Promoting social dialogue in an enlarged Europe". He presented the otucomes from the Athens' workshop as well as the upcoming project's Final conference to take place on 3 July in Brussels.
For the Postal sector evolution working group, Margaux Meidinger, chair of the group presented the ongoing project "Trend research for the postal sector" with in particular the list of key factors agreed upon in the Paris workshop. The consultant in charge of this project, Z_Punkt, presented its methodology as well as examples from prospective analysis in other companies.
Postal Sector Evolution working group project 'Trend research for the postal sector in 2030" - First workshop Paris 29-30 May
On 29-30 May, took place the first workshop of the PSE project "Trend research for the postal sector in 2030". This project aims at elaborating 3 to 5 scenarios on what will be the postal sector in 2030. It is a prospective and innovative exercice among European social partners that enables interactive exchanges. The project is supported by the consultant Z_Punkt.
The workshop in Paris gathered more than 35 participants and enabled to formulate the list of the key factors whose evolution will affect most the postal sector.
The next workshop of the project will take place in Bonn on 1-2 October.
Training project "Promoting Social Dialogue in the postal sector in an enlarged Europe" - Third regional seminar, Athens 3-4 May 2018
The last regional seminar of the Training project 'Promoting social dialogue in the postal sector in an enlarged Europe" was successfully organized in Athens on 3-4 May. This workshop focusing on Mediterranean and candidate countries gathered more than 42 participants from Albania, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain as well as the project team.
High-level representatives from Greece, the hosting country, welcomed the participants with an introduction from ELTA's Chairwoman of the Board, a speech from the President of the Greek postal union - POST- as well as from the Head of Cabinet of the Ministry of Digital Policy, telecommunications and media.
A presentation on European social dialogue from Sylvie Finne from DG Employment completed this introduction.
The meeting also enabled an exchange of numerous good practices. On Social dialogue at national level first, with the presentation from Francesco Costa from Poste Italiane as well as a presentation from Albanian trade union.
The second day of the meeting focused on digitalisation and its impact on companies with a presentation from Dina Barisic from Croatian Post, a presentation on digital training from Grazia Maremonti from Poste Italiane and on digital training from Margarita Pitti from KEK ELTA.
During the afternoon, the session focused on training with presentations from Correos on its digital learning, from CCOO Spain on the learning programms its provides together with the company as well as on trainings put in place thanks to EU-funding by ELTA.
Training project "Promoting Social Dialogue in the postal sector in an enlarged Europe" - Second regional seminar, Vilnius 18-19 January 2018
This was the occasion to hear presentations on the European Social Dialogue Committee and its projects as well as to exchange good practices.
The main outputs of Social Dialogue were presented but also the objectives and results of the current project as well as the outputs from the last PSE project.
An update about the main regulatory issues in the sector, especially as regards parcels,was also shared with the participants.
In terms of good practices, several countries gave testimonies :
- Lithuanian Post mobile postman and post offices
- PostNL internal and external mobility
- Presentation from SEKO on impact of digitalisation on the Swedish postal market
- Partnership between Simplon and La Poste to train employees to new digital jobs
- Development of parcels' and return solutions in An Post
Anual SDC Plenary 7 December 2017
On 7 December took place the European Social Dialogue Committee annual Plenary meeting with around 40 representatives from European postal companies and trade unions from the sector.
This was the occasion to get high-level external experts with the presentation of the latest "Main Developments in the postal sector 2013-2016" study conducted by Copenhagen Economics as well as an update on EU initiatives on the sector done by Raphael Goulet from DG GROW.
This annual meeting is also the opportunity to present the past and upcoming activities of the SDC working groups. Thus Francesco Costa presented the Training, H&S working group activities with in particular the ongoing project " “Promoting European Social Dialogue in the postal sector in an enlarged Europe” and Margaux Meidinger presented the Postal Sector Evolution working group activities with a focus on the upcoming project "Trend research for the postal sector in 20320".
2018 will be a dense year for the SDC with two EU-funded projects run in parallel and several meetings all over the year.
2018 SDC meetings:
- 9 February
- 7 July
- 4 December
Training project "Promoting Social Dialogue in the postal sector in an enlarged Europe" - First regional seminar, Prague 21-22 September 2017
The first regional seminar of the training project gathered more than 20 employers' and trade unions' representatives from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Slovakia and Romania as well as the Project Steering Group.
The seminar, organized with the good support of Czech Post and unions, focused on capacity building in terms of social dialogue and on digitalisation with a rich exchange of good practices between participants.
It was in particular the opportunity to present the SDC organization and the Training project main results based on the questionnaires filled in by participating countries.
The project team also presented the results of the former PSE project as well as the MOOC on e-commerce and new services.
The next regional seminar will take place in January in Vilnius with another group of countries.
SDC meetings, 28 June 2017
On 28 June took place the meetings of the Training, Health & Safety working group as well as of the Postal Sector Evolution working group.
Training, Health & Safety working group
The implementation of the project "Promoting Social Dialogue in the postal sector a Enlarged Europe" is well under way with two regional seminars planned on 21-22 September 2017 in Czech Republic and in January 2018 in Lithuania. Both hosting postal companies took part to the SDC meetings and are looking forward to organizing these two meetings. See presentation
Postal Sector Evolution working group
The meeting focused on the presentation of the funding demand submitted to the European Commission on 15 June for the project "Trend research for the postal sector in 2030". This project is a prospective exercise between the European social partners aiming at elaborating 3 to 5 scenarions on what will be the postal sector in 2030. Participants wecomed the innovativeness of this new project. See presentation
SDC Meetings 7 March 2017
On 7 March took place the meetings of the Training, Health & Safety working group as well as of the Postal Sector Evolution working group.
Training, Health & Safety working group
At this occasion was presented the new project "Promoting Social Dialogue in the postal sector a Enlarged Europe" conducted by the Training, H&S working group. See presentation
Postal Sector Evolution working group
The presentation focused on the main outputs of the project "Mobilising social partners in a new context": the final report and online Training. It also presented the 2017 work programme which will focus on digital transformation.
Final report SDC project 2015-2016 "Mobilising social partners in a new context"
The SDC project conducted in 2015-2016 aimed at analyzing the content of the collective labour agreements signed within 16 postal operators to support the change process.
The final report of this project is available for download in English: PSE project final report . It has also been published in French and German.
SDC Plenary 1 December 2016
On 1 December took place the annual Plenary meeting of the European Social Dialogue Committee for the postal sector. The meeting was rich with several highlights in the morning and the presentation of the working group activities in the afternoon.
Joint Declaration on Social Dialogue
At this occasion, was signed the "Joint Declaration on the role of Social Dialogue in the transformation" which is available in several languages:
Elections of SDC President and Vice-President
The elections of the SDC President and Vice-President also took place. Jutta Rawe-Bäumer was elected as President of the SDC, replacing Dominique Bailly who stepped down after 10 years, and Brian Scott was reconducted as Vice-President.
DG GROW intervention
Harrie Temmink, acting Head of Unit "Public Interest Services", did a presentation on the main regulatory issues for the postal sector, in particular the Postal Directive and the proposal of regulation on cross-border parcels delivery.
Working group activities
The afternoon session enabled to present the activites of the two SDC working groups.
The Postal Sector Evolution working group presented the project "Mobilising social partners conducted in 2015-2016, see presentation.
The Training, Health and Safety working group focused on the outcomes from the Training seminar on e-commerce and new services which was also organized in the framework of the above project; see presentation. It also introduced the new project, accepted by the European Commission, to be conducted in 2017-2018 on capacity building and digital transformation; see presentation.
Final conference of the EU co-funded project "Mobilising social partners in a new context" on 24 & 25 May 2016 Bucharest, Romania
Key inputs and interactive discussions
The meeting was attended by 52 participants from 18 EU countries, including representatives both from the Postal Operators and the Trade Unions and had the objective to generate a healthy discussion between European social partners on the social transformation strategies of the European postal operators and better understand how has social dialogue is supporting the change management process.
The discussion was based on the outputs of the project which included the analysis of the collective labour agreements signed within 16 selected European postal operators. The meeting made it possible to present the main social transformation levers in terms of wages, work organisation, training and mobility, illustrated through interesting operators and unions’ testimonies on the initiatives put in place at national level to support the transformation of companies.
All presentations of the conference are available here
SDC Post Training seminar on e-commerce and new services 17-18 November 2015
Offering a consistent training to the European social partners of the postal sector on e-commerce and new services, this was the aim of the SDC Post training seminar organized on 17-18 November 2015 which gathered 60 participants from 20 countries. It included in particular key inputs on the e-commerce market and value chain illustrated by concrete case studies.
Key inputs and interactive discussions
The seminar was an opportunity for interactive discussion and learning on initiates being develop within the postal industry in the areas of new services and particularly the e-commerce areas which are of importance to the sector. It was facilitated by a consultant with wide experience in the Postal Sector who engaged with participants and pulled together themes and strands of work as identified by the participants and particularly the social partners.
A MOOC as an innovative follow-up
To ensure the long-lasting impact of this seminar in an innovative manner, a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) is under elaboration for a wider dissemination of the seminar’s input.
