Bpost strike continues as staff protest against change in working hours

A strike at Belgian postal company Bpost is spreading, with picket lines blocking all distribution centres in Wallonia and Brussels overnight on Tuesday and no post delivered on Wednesday.

Staff are protesting against the company’s transformation plan, expected to come into effect from September.

Under the new plan, almost all staff would start two hours later and therefore finish their working day two hours later, a change they say would disrupt their family life.

Workers are also anxious about changing and unpredictable schedules being forced on them.

“They’ll tell someone, we need you for three to four hours. On Tuesday, start at 10.00, on Wednesday at 8.00,” Christophe Romain, a CSC-Transcom union representative, told RTL.

“So family life is going to be affected, and we simply cannot accept that.”

While unions lament a breakdown in communication with management, CSC representative Grégory Vandersmissen remains optimistic.

“You always have to have hope. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be in this line of work,” Vandersmissen said.

“I hope the company will listen to the staff’s grievances, which have been raised by their trade unions.

"I think that, with a little goodwill, there are ways to find alternatives and that we can finally achieve something positive."

Public modernisation minister Vanessa Matz (Les Engagés) said she was “particularly concerned” about the strike action affecting distribution centres in Wallonia and Brussels and has asked to meet with the trade unions and management “to try to bridge the gap between their positions, which relate both to the transformation of the company in a highly competitive environment and to the well-being of workers, their working conditions and the necessary work-life balance”.

Further meetings are scheduled for Thursday.