National Co-President, Postal Workers Union of Aotearoa (PWUA)

NZ Post Doesn't Want To Come To Your Letterbox Anymore!

NZ Post wants to stop delivering mail to the letterbox at your gate. You can keep your letterbox - it's just that NZ Post doesn't want to put anything in it! The company also wants to reduce urban mail delivery from three days a week to two days a week, rural delivery from five days a week to three days a week and reduce its retail outlets from over 800 to 400.

In late 2024 the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) ran a consultation process on changes that NZ Post wants to make to its Deed of Understanding with the Government, which included NZ Post gradually moving away from household front gate letterbox deliveries to deliver mail instead to letterbox "cluster" or "communal points" - whatever they are.

This is but the latest example of what the Union believes to be NZ Post steadily running down its mail delivery business. In June 2023 the company announced publicly that it wants to lay off all 700 delivery sector employees over the next few years. It wants to have the mail delivered instead by contractors - contract couriers - who currently deliver only parcels. Couriers would not be required to try to stop at individual household letterboxes. Instead, they could make a reduced number of stops at groupings or clusters of letterboxes.

Instead, they could make a much-reduced number of stops at groupings or clusters of letterboxes. Already posties have heard from householders of their concerns about their mail being delivered to letterboxes out of their sight and vulnerable to being broken into. The Union has been sent a photo of damage done to every letterbox in a roadside cluster.

It is my personal belief that the running down of NZ Post's mail delivery has its origins in a submission made to the National government by the Business Roundtable in 1996 - that NZ Post should first be deregulated and then privatised. The National government appeared to oblige with the passage of the Postal Services Act 1998 which broke NZ Post's monopoly on letter mail and allowed private mail companies to compete with NZ Post for the collection, processing and distribution of the standard letter. Further, NZ Post was required under the Postal Services Act to have its posties deliver the mail of those private sector companies which had yet to establish their own delivery networks.

The Union believes that there should be no changes to NZ Post's Deed of Understanding with the Government until the outcomes of two legal proceedings which have been brought by the Postal Workers Union are known, considered by the parties, and the consultation process in the Collective Agreement complied with:

• The Postal Workers Union allegation of breaches of the Postal Workers Union/NZ Post Collective Agreement following NZ Post's decision to lay off all 700 of its delivery employees and give their work to contractors. The Union's claim is that NZ Post failed to consult with the Union, failed to provide a business plan, failed to act to minimise redundancies and failed to consider other practicable options which include retaining work by employees and not contractors (Employment Relations Authority Auckland. Determination due by 30 June 2025).
• The Postal Workers Union application to the Employment Court in Wellington for an Employment Relations Act section 6 declaration that a small group of "contract" couriers are, because of "the real nature of the relationship" with NZ Post, in fact not contractors but are employees (Employment Court Wellington. A date for the Court hearing has yet to be set after a refiling of the case by the Union in the Employment Court in early 2025).

MBIE Consultation Misleading

The Postal Workers Union has told MBIE that its consultation process on the proposed changes to NZ Post's Deed with the Government were selective, misleading, complicated and inaccessible to the 10% of the population in the 2023 Census who do not have access to the Internet. In fact, this 10% may be the most significantly impacted by the proposal to change from individual household mail delivery to mail being delivered to "communal points".

The Union believes that the proposed change to the Deed with the biggest impact on the overwhelming number of households was not included in the submission template provided by MBIE for feedback on its Website. MBIE's consultation statement on its Website invited the reading of the full proposal for changes to the Deed, with MBIE wanting to hear feedback by 10 December 2024 on how people are currently using the mail service.

On its Website MBIE provided a submission template with 16 questions. Question 10 invited submitters to comment on "Changes to how NZ Post would be required to deliver mail". The question posed is: "If you were moving to a location that was not currently within NZ Post's mail network footprint (e.g. not receiving mail delivery), how would you feel about receiving mail at a community delivery point, or other means than through a letterbox at your property?"

Those householders not intending to move residence - and so not covered by question 10 - would reasonably conclude that any change to a "community delivery point" was not relevant to them. Since they are not planning to move to a new residence, they would not expect there to be any change to mail delivery to their individual household letterbox at their front gate.

However, on the MBIE Website, one of the changes sought by NZ Post was: "Allowing NZ Post to convert existing delivery points into communal delivery points at a rate of up to 5% a year" (emphasis added). It was not until page 11 of the discussion document on the MBIE Website that "delivery point" is defined to include household letterboxes.

There was no question in the MBIE submission template enabling submitters to respond to the proposal to move "existing delivery points" to "communal points". Thus, there was no provision in the submission template for householders to have been able to give feedback on "how proposed changes would work for our communities" - that is, the proposed cessation of mail deliveries to individual household letterboxes at the front gate.

MBIE declined the Union's recommendation that, in the circumstances, the consultation process be suspended, the documents including the submission template be rewritten, the process made less complicated and made more accessible to the general public, including the 10% who do not have access to the Internet. MBIE also declined the Union's recommendation that a rewritten consultation process be extended to at least three months. The Union advised MBIE that the information collected in the consultation process by MBIE lacks integrity as a basis for advice to be given to the Minister for State Owned Enterprises who would be making the final decision about changes to the Deed.

Union's Counterproposal To The Laying Off Of All Posties

In 2023 NZ Post introduced a plan it has called Tūpuna and launched what it calls a strategic direction which includes the laying off of all 700 mail service employees and having the mail delivered by contractors. The Union is still waiting for NZ Post to produce its business case for moving from a network of employees delivering mail to a network of contractors. It is of particular interest to the Union that the company has said cost is not a factor in its decision to move from employees to a solely contractor model for mail delivery.

In response to NZ Post's strategic direction the Union made a formal counter-proposal to NZ Post's decision to dismiss all its delivery employees. The Union's counter-proposal model is to maintain a slimmed down footpath delivery network delivering letter and magazine mail and packets and small parcels on electric cargo bikes and electric motorcycles. NZ Post's plan, instead, is to increase the number of fossil-fuelled vans required when it wants to move to mail delivered by contractors. Most couriers spoken to by the Union do not want to deliver mail or many of the small packets and parcels that can be more easily delivered by posties.

It is important for NZ Post to maintain a mail delivery network that can promptly reach all households and businesses in Aotearoa New Zealand. This is required for maintaining the electoral roll, conducting postal voting, providing information for people to be able to participate in an informed way in democratic processes, facilitating business processes and social interaction, and getting essential information to the public in challenging times (for example, public health advice during the covid pandemic).

A reduction in the frequency of delivery days will encourage customers to increase their use of a private competitor's mail service, which will weaken NZ Post's mail service and make it less economically sustainable. Unlike NZ Post, private mail competitors are not required to provide a nationwide service to all households and businesses. Private mail companies are not required by the statutory obligation to "have regard for the interests of the community".

The Union accepts that modern communication methods have seen a much less and declining reliance on letter mail, and that NZ Post must adjust its operations accordingly. However, the maintenance of a universal, publicly owned mail service which can promptly and reliably deliver essential mail to all households and businesses in Aotearoa New Zealand is vital to democracy and public safety, and the Deed changes currently proposed do not ensure that this will continue. The successful outcome of the Union's case in the Employment Relations Authority would see the continuation of mail deliveries by posties to the householders' letterboxes at the gate.

Posties Defying NZ Post's New "Return To Sender" Policy

NZ Post has upset posties with a new instruction that they must "return to sender" all mail addressed to the street address of institutions which already pay for a separate PO box or private bag number and which have not also previously been receiving street deliveries from NZ Post. This includes hospitals, Government departments, courts, medical centres, schools, lawyers, accountants and rest homes.

The Union believes the company's return to sender policy is to prepare the company for trying to lay off all of NZ Post's 700 mail delivery employees and having the mail delivered instead by couriers who, working as contractors and not as employees, would not be redirecting the mail to customers' preferred PO box or private bag address.

The Postal Workers Union says that NZ Post's new policy may be in breach of its public contract. The company's own Postal Users' Guide says that mail will be delivered to ground floor street addresses of business premises where there is access to a locked mail box, a letter slot, a reception desk or a shop counter close to the main entrance.

However, NZ Post is now claiming that it can decline an application for a street address delivery if the approval of the new delivery point would jeopardise the commercial sustainability of NZ Post. The Union does not accept that the routine, efficient delivery of mail to, for instance, a Government department or hospital would jeopardise the commercial sustainability of NZ Post.

NZ Post is now demanding of posties that all mail that has been addressed to the street addresses of Government departments, Police, courts, local authorities, hospitals, and businesses which have not also been receiving street deliveries must not be delivered to the street addresses of the institutions but be returned to sender.

Until the new policy announcement, the posties redirected any institution or business mail addressed to the street addresses to the appropriate box or bag numbers from a box and bag register held in the Postal Delivery Branches for every postie run. Under NZ Post's new policy, mail clearly addressed to, for example, a named patient at the street address of a hospital is "returned to sender" because, as NZ Post has previously told incredulous union members, people need to learn how to address mail correctly, including mail they want to send to hospital patients.

Some posties are now defying the management instruction to "return to sender" as they are concerned that important mail will otherwise not reach the hospitals, schools, Government departments and businesses that rely on receiving correspondence from clients. Posties are also concerned that sending customers who have paid the correct postage and addressed their item to an easily identified address, and who expect the item to be delivered in accordance with NZ Post's public contract with customers, are finding the item "returned to sender" - no delivery service provided by NZ Post and no refund offered for the postage they have paid.

Posties are concerned that they could find themselves the focus of the anger and frustration of both the senders and receivers of mail when mail addressed in good faith, with the correct postage, is being returned to sender. The Union will be defending with vigour any posties who, continuing to redirect mail to the recipients' preferred address, or having insisted on the mail getting through by delivering mail to the street addresses of box or bag holders, may then face disciplinary action for defying NZ Post's instructions.

The Union says that NZ Post appears to have lost sight of its essential function to provide New Zealanders with a mail service with the integrity, reliability and trustworthiness required of a publicly owned institution. The Union says that NZ Post has unilaterally removed part of its essential service with disregard for the actual and potentially critical disruption to relationships at all levels of society caused by NZ Post failing in its statutory duty under the State-Owned Enterprises Act to have regard for the interests of the community.

Union Says NZ Post's Couriers Are Employees, Not Contractors

The Postal Workers Union is currently challenging NZ Post on the status of its couriers. The company says they are contractors. The Union will be presenting evidence from a small representative group of NZ Post couriers seeking a declaration from the Employment Court under section 6 of the Employment Relations Act that "the real nature of the relationship" with NZ Post means that they are employees, not contractors. It appears to the Union that NZ Post has made every effort to delay this case from being heard by the Court. The case was originally scheduled for July 2024 but delayed until February 2025. The case has now been refiled by the Union after a key witness came to a settlement with NZ Post.

NZ Post had already made two attempts to get the Court to delay the case. In rejecting an attempt by NZ Post to delay the case the Court noted that NZ Post "was keen to emphasise that this litigation is extremely important to [NZ Post] given its present business model and, as I understand it, other changes that might be proposed in future. [NZ Post] is therefore placing considerable store on the outcome of this case".

NZ Post's Contract Courier Model Unsafe

The Postal Workers Union strongly supports NZ Post's Safety and Wellbeing Action Groups (SWAGs) where they are well resourced and properly functioning. "Workplaces are safer when all workers (employees, leaders, executive and contractors) can actively contribute to health and safety". NZ Post agreed with the Postal Workers Union that posties themselves decide how much mail they can take out for delivery to safely complete their rostered hours or voluntary overtime.

The company agreed that "the best judge of what can be safely done for the day ... rests with the person actually performing the work". The company agreed with the Union that, to have a "safety always focus", posties must not feel rushed or take shortcuts to complete their mail delivery. NZ Post removed any instruction that posties must clear the floor every day. Having enough staff to ensure the delivery of mail every day is the responsibility of management resourcing.

However, NZ Post has no such concern for the safety of its contract couriers - they have been urged to "push ourselves further", "knuckle down", "keep digging in", "perform much higher than this" and to "clear the floor every day". Posties are no longer required to clear the floor every day. Contract couriers can be in breach of their contract if they do not clear the floor. The Union believes NZ Post's operation of its contractor model is in breach of section 36(3)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work Act "the provision and maintenance of safe systems of work".

Union's History Of Opposition To NZ Post Running Down Its Business

The Postal Workers Union has a long history of opposition to NZ Post running down its mail delivery service. In 1996, in a submission to the Bolger government the Business Roundtable (now absorbed into the New Zealand Initiative) called for the deregulation and eventual privatisation of NZ Post (the Union has only recently discovered, to our surprise and concern, that the then Chief Executive Officer of NZ Post was a member of the Business Roundtable from 1994 to 1999).

Just one year after the Business Roundtable submission, the then Minister of Communications, Maurice Williamson, was in for a surprise when he stood to introduce the Postal Services Bill to break NZ Post's letter monopoly and to allow private companies to compete for mail collection, sorting and distribution. One of the five postie members of the Postal Workers Union who had gone into Parliament's public gallery on that day stood to deliver a strong speech from the gallery over Williamson's shoulder into his microphone expressing concern that such a law change would lead to the running down and probable eventual privatisation of NZ Post.

Two security guards quickly leapt through the seating to drag the postie from the gallery, do a pat down, take details from the driving licence and then a physical escort to the Molesworth gates of Parliament. In answer to a question from the postie one of the security guards said no, you can't come back on a nice sunny day and have your lunch under the pohutukawa - touch a single blade of grass here within two years and you will be arrested for trespass.

At that moment the two security guards got a radio message that Parliament had just been brought to a complete stop. A second postie, lying on the floor undetected amongst the gallery seating, was blowing loudly on a postie whistle which echoed throughout the Chamber, and shouting out "Save NZ Post". So, no prospect of lunch under the pohutukawa for him either for the next couple of summers.

NZ Post CEO And The Business Roundtable

The National government introduced the Postal Services Bill in 1997 which provided for private mail companies to compete with NZ Post. With its the passage into law in 1998 NZ Post lost its monopoly on the standard letter. At the same time, NZ Post was required to deliver the mail of its private sector competitors, at a time when private sector mail companies did not have their own mail delivery networks.

After the passage into law of the Postal Services Act 1998 the then NZ Post CEO, a member of the Business Roundtable which had recommended the deregulation of NZ Post, publicly promoted deregulation and competition as good for NZ Post. For example, the Taranaki Daily News headline of 3 September 1998 - "Post Boss Welcomes Competition". There appeared to be no concern by the CEO of a State-owned enterprise about the consequent loss of NZ Post business and revenue to a private sector competitor.

The Union was very surprised that the CEO of a State-owned monopoly would actively promote the loss of business and revenue to private sector competitors and encourage the inefficiency of posties from at least two different companies going up and down the same streets. The Minister of Finance at the time of the passage of the Postal Services Act 1998, after retiring from Parliament, joined the board of a private sector mail company in direct competition with NZ Post. This was a former Shareholding Minister of NZ Post, with his detailed knowledge of the business of NZ Post, voting in Parliament in support of the introduction of private sector competition with NZ Post, and then taking up a position as a director in a company actively competing with NZ Post's mail network.

NZ Post Hides Behind The Parapets

NZ Post is required by the State-Owned Enterprises Act to be "an organisation that exhibits a sense of social responsibility by having regard to the interests of the community in which it operates and by endeavouring to accommodate or encourage these when able to do so". The Union has repeatedly challenged NZ Post that by its action and inaction the company fails to have regard for the interests of the community.

The Union has also repeatedly challenged the company about its failure to "fight its corner" by either defending its reputation from public criticism, or speaking up to maintain public confidence in its mail delivery business. NZ Post routinely declines news media requests for interviews - opportunities for NZ Post to maintain and encourage public confidence in its mail service.

• Removing Road Side Post Boxes: NZ Post ignored repeated requests from the Union, that to protect its reputation, the company advise community newspapers when the company was considering relocating or removing roadside post boxes. The refusal of NZ Post to consult, or to "have regard for the interests of the community" resulted in many negative news media stories, including newspaper photos and TV news reports of locals protesting about the removal of their post boxes. NZ Post began pulling out post boxes which had up to 30 letters a day - a very large number of letters posted in a roadside post box on a daily basis. The Union lost count after more than 1,500 roadside post boxes had been quietly removed by NZ Post.
• Failure To Support Postal Voting: NZ Post ignored requests from the Postal Workers Union to attend Select Committee hearings at Parliament in 2017 and 2018 when the Union was making submissions on the importance for the democratic process of a postal voting infrastructure. This included having an accessible network of roadside posting boxes "in the interests of the community".

  NZ Post had been continuing its removal of roadside posting boxes including removing three roadside post boxes in Rangiora during the period of postal voting for the 2016 local authority elections. The Union has seen no evidence over the past decade that NZ Post feels any obligation to maintain the infrastructure for postal voting. Instead, by its removal of so many well used road side post boxes, the company seemed to be demonstrating the very opposite.

• School Trustee Postal Votes Invalidated: In 2019 NZ Post did not want to agree to a Radio NZ interview about school boards of trustees' votes being discarded for a lack of a postmark to validate the postal votes. It was only after NZ Post learned that the Postal Workers Union was available for an interview with Radio NZ that a company spokesperson finally agreed to an interview.

  The company's spokesperson then gave a very clear and simple explanation of the problem - a stamp cancelling machine running out of ink - and how quickly it was able to be rectified by NZ Post. NZ Post had not wanted to take up an open opportunity to easily reassure public confidence in postal voting for school boards of trustees.

• No Stamps At Christmas: For two successive Christmases - 2021 and 2022 - NZ Post refused news media interviews to explain how it was that the company had run out of stamps in the lead up to Christmas.
• NZ Post Left The People Vulnerable To Mail Scams: About eight years ago, to alert the residents of a retirement village to what she had been shown by a customer to be scam mail, a member of the Union had written "scam" on the front of some of the letters to be delivered to the retirement village. This was after her manager had refused to alert his superiors to her concerns about the vulnerability of retirement village residents to mail scams delivered by NZ Post. Instead, the manager instructed her that she must deliver mail as addressed.

  The postie was then put through a disciplinary process for defacing mail. I was sitting beside the postie at the outcome meeting and I saw the colour drain from her face as she was told that if she continued to deface the mail in the same way then she could face six years imprisonment under the Postal Services Act. Following up on the courage of the postie, her concern for the residents in the retirement village, the concern of other posties and only after the persistence of the Postal Workers Union, NZ Post now has a process, in compliance with its international mail delivery obligations, to protect residents from mail scams.

  However, it had taken a Postal Workers Union official on leave in Malaysia investigating the source of the scam, meeting with the Malaysian Government Pension Fund (used by the scammers as a front), meeting with representatives of the Malaysian High Commission in Wellington, and finally hand delivering a letter of complaint to the office of the Commissioner of Police in Wellington to try to have residents protected from scam mail being delivered by NZ Post.

  It was only when the matter was referred by the Commissioner to the Police Fraud Squad which took the matter up with NZ Post directly, that the company took any action to protect residents from a series of four mail scams that had been running over a number of years. The NZ Police had estimated that millions of dollars had already been lost to fraud from the scam mail being delivered by NZ Post.

• Remote Areas Without Internet: Speaking to Radio NZ's Nine to Noon programme in December 2022 about problems of Internet access in more remote areas, the Mayor of Westland stated that NZ Post needed to fix its mail network. Despite the urgings of the Postal Workers Union, NZ Post refused to contact her to understand the mail service obstacles faced by the people of Westland.
• Two Years Of Mail Delivery Failures To Wainuiomata: Because of NZ Post's refusal to retain adequate staffing levels at the Lower Hutt Postal Delivery Branch in 2022 and 2023, for two years mail deliveries to some areas in the Lower Hutt suburb of Wainuiomata were reduced on occasions to twice or even once a week. There were residents in Wainuiomata who believed that NZ Post's mail delivery service had been reduced to one day a week.

  When the Union was finally successful in having NZ Post increase its staffing level at Lower Hutt by five new posties, NZ Post refused the Union's request that the people of Wainuiomata be reassured through their community newspaper that their irregular mail delivery service had been restored to three days a week. NZ Post did not seem to care about any on-going lack of confidence in NZ Post's mail delivery service by the people of Wainuiomata.

• Sports Results Promotion Opportunity: Although appearing to be interested, NZ Post made no attempt to follow up on a proposal by the Postal Workers Union to increase the interest in and the use of the postal service inspired by a promotion used by the Thailand Post Office. Thailand Post ran a sports result competition with significant prizes that required entries to be made on a competition postcard purchased from Thailand Post and returned by mail through Thailand Post.

  At the time the population of Thailand was 70 million and they received over 200 million postcard entries. The Union proposed that the mail volumes, from the entries in a sports results competition, could increase up to an extra 12 million mail items for any year that the competition was run. NZ Post repeatedly ignored requests from the PWUA that NZ Post conduct a business case to see if a similar mail promotion would be viable for New Zealand.

  By ignoring the Union's request, NZ Post lost the potential opportunity for positive widespread news media exposure that would have come with announcing the competition, announcing the prizes, and the publicity around the announcing of the winners. The use of Post Shops and road side posting boxes would have increased.

  The Union explained to the company that the Union would have accepted the outcome of the business case if it showed the proposal lacked viability or there were other commercial complications. After four years of being ignored by NZ Post the Union finally gave up on pursuing its request for a business case for the project with the company.

• Mass Layoffs' Threats: In June 2023, the Union expressed its strong concern to NZ Post about what the Union believed to be unnecessary public statements about a mass lay-off of posties over the following three to five years. The effect of the statement was to further undermine public confidence in the future of NZ Post, not to mention the job security of 700 NZ Post employees. As well as undermining public confidence in NZ Post, these statements from NZ Post provided opportunities for private sector mail operators to place themselves in the market as a reliable delivery company for businesses with large mailouts.

Union Has Serious Concerns

It is these experiences of the lack of action in protecting the interests of the citizens or the company's own reputation that has led the Postal Workers Union to have serious concerns about the basis for which NZ Post wants changes to its service Deed with the Government. The Union believes NZ Post's failures to fulfil its State-Owned Enterprises Act obligations to the community has contributed to a loss of public confidence in its mail service, and the loss of mail volume, including to private sector competitors.

There is a long held and widespread belief among members of the Postal Workers Union that NZ Post has been deliberately running down its business for as long as they can remember. Union members have expressed the view that NZ Post has been actively sabotaging its own business. In spite of what the Union considers to be the significant failures of NZ Post to act in "the interests of the community in which it operates" the Postal Workers Union continues to promote the existence of a reliable, trustworthy, efficient and publicly owned mail delivery service. The Union wishes to hear from and offer support to any community groups faced with NZ Post refusing to maintain the traditional mail delivery to the letterbox at the gate. Meantime, the Union will continue to push the envelope ...

Watchdog - 168 April 2025