Postal workers unions and TNT post have reached a provisional agreement on redundancies, heading of the threat of a four day strike to disrupt the Christmas post.

Unions have been striking about TNT’s plans to sack 2,800 people as part of a revamp of its delivery operations. In total, 11,000 jobs will disappear.
By shifting workers to other units and phasing in the reorganisation over a longer period, TNT now says it can reduce the number of compulsory redundancies by a further 500.
‘The unions will present the agreement in principle to their employees with a recommendation for acceptance and will not undertake any further industrial action,’ TNT said in a statement.

Competition
Meanwhile, budget postal firms Sandd and SelektMail have been given temporary respite from being forced to give their delivery workers formal employment contracts.
Junior economic affairs minister Henk Bleker told MPs on Wednesday evening he wanted to give government negotiator Ruud Vreeman more time to find a solution for the conflict.
When the postal delivery market was liberalised in 2008, the budget services agreed to make sure at least 10% of their delivery workers had a formal contract by April 2010 and 80% by 2012. But so far they have fallen far short.
TNT argues it faces unfair competition because the budget firms pay workers per item delivered and many earn well below the minimum wage.
Bleker said he hoped Vreeman’s report and the cabinet response will be finalised by mid-January.