According to the RTL story, the postal workers’ union has confirmed that their members in some area are struggling to fulfil daily deliveries, even though many are working double shifts. The overtime is part and parcel of staff scheduling, but staff shortages are occurring more frequently when delivery personnel take parental leave, undergo training or are simply too old to continue doing delivery routes.

Union president Raymond Juchem has said that despite recruitment drives, good personnel are hard to find. Many postal workers are leaving the service because working conditions are too demanding, he told RTL. In addition, he says that many postal workers are no longer civil servants with decent pay, but are being hired as private employees starting at salaries that are barely above the minimum wage. The union is currently negotiating a new collective agreement with Post Luxembourg management which should result in improved salaries that will make the service more attractive to qualified personnel, Juchem said.

RTL says that although the law decrees that postal deliveries have to be made every day from Monday to Friday, new rules written by the Institut Luxembourgeois de Régulation--which is preparing the liberalization of the Post--states that deliveries every second day is also possible.