La Poste’s public service mission will be reduced. The territorial postal presence contract, which finances the 17,000 antennas in France, will have to be reduced by 50 million euros this year, announced on Friday, September 27, the general director of the La Poste group.
“There is this budget cut of 50 million euros of the 160 million that was decided and [dont] “We will discuss with the State”declared Philippe Wahl, on the sidelines of the congress of the Association of Rural Mayors of France in Saint-Julien (Côte-d’Or), during which he was questioned by an elected official. “If this cut is made in 2024, it undoubtedly announces a cut in 2025, which means that we will no longer be able to operate municipal postal agencies”he added.
Signed by La Poste, the Association of Mayors of France (AMF) and the State for the period 2023-2025, this territorial postal presence contract, initially accompanied by credits of 177 million euros per year, compensates for the financial losses linked to the presence. of 17,000 “points of contact” postal services (post offices, municipal and inter-municipal agencies, France Services, etc.) throughout the territory.
A service managed “under the prism of profit”
Thanks to this network, more than 97% of the population is less than 5 kilometers or less than 20 minutes from a “point of contact” postal. But the cost of La Poste’s territorial planning mission is growing faster than the resources allocated to finance it.
“In rural municipalities there are many municipal postal agencies in which La Poste pays part of the salary of the municipal employee, so it is a real tragedy for the future of these contact points”Philippe Wahl stressed.
According to the AMF, since the signing of the first postal presence contract in 2008, “More than 2.4 billion euros have been invested in the regions to adapt and modernize the postal presence and support the most vulnerable customers”. benefit from it “as a priority (…) rural areas, mountain areas, urban policy priority districts and overseas territories ».
“The CGT protests against this announcement that clearly goes against the interests of the population and postal workers whose jobs are threatened”The union reacted in a press release, calling “to make 1Ahem October a great day of mobilization for public service ».
“Whether on the side of La Poste management or the State (which remains one of the two shareholders of the group [avec la Caisse des dépôts]), public service missions are assumed exclusively through the prism of profit.”Sud-PTT denounced for its part. The union asked in a statement “a broad debate on the future of the public postal service, in all its components, banking, communication, mail or parcel delivery, territorial presence”.
