Correos has promised this Wednesday to undertake an “unprecedented contracting” to cover 100% absences due to vacations in July in order to guarantee that citizens can vote by mail in the general elections on July 23.
The company has issued a statement after the unions have demanded in recent days more reinforcements in the face of the elections because they understand that the 5,500 contracts that the public entity had announced are “insufficient”.
The unions calculate that if Correos plans to cover all vacations in July, some 11,250 people should be hired, since, according to the agreement, 25% of the workforce, which is around 45,000 employees, will take vacations that month, always according to their figures.
Correos explains that the specific number of contracts will be communicated when on June 9 all Correos employees have reported their vacations. It also insists that “it is adopting all the necessary organizational measures for the correct development of activities related to electoral processes and voting by mail.”
Thus, it will extend the opening hours of the offices from July 3, both through extensions of hours and with extraordinary openings on non-working days, depending on the needs that are identified. Likewise, it plans to reinforce the service throughout the network, especially in tourist areas, making it possible for postmen to deliver on weekends.
Among other measures, the possibility of establishing exclusive counters in the offices to deposit the vote by mail is foreseen, whenever the level of influx requires it, and the prior appointment system will be strengthened. In addition to these measures, Correos has asked the Central Electoral Board to extend the deadline for voting by mail until July 20 to make it as easy as possible for citizens to manage and process it.
In this context, the CCOO and the UGT have requested a joint meeting with the Post Office to transmit their claims, José Manuel Sayagués, postal secretary for public services at UGT, explained to EFE.
Sayagués hopes that the meeting will be held next week at the latest, since he considers that there is no margin and it is vital to provide “material and human resources” to lighten the workload of a “decreased and exhausted” staff after the elections on May 28.
In this sense, it has estimated the number of citizens who had requested a vote by mail up to yesterday, Tuesday, when the period has been open for just over a week. It can be applied for until July 13, which suggests that the record of about 1.5 million mail-in votes from 2016 is likely to be broken.
From UGT they point out that Correos has a structural deficit of 8,000 employees and a network of offices, where the vote by mail is deposited, “squeezed and stressed”. For its part, CCOO calculates that given that the elections, which will take place in the middle of the holiday period, more than 2 million people will want to vote by mail, which makes it necessary to sign at least 12,000 reinforcement contracts.
Likewise, it requires an increase in workers’ compensation for electoral campaigns -currently 121 euros-, to increase customer service and distribution with volunteer staff, to increase service hours and to protect employees from the foreseeable heat of July.
Despite considering that the company’s efforts are not enough, both unions refuse to call a strike like the one proposed by the Free Union, the fourth with the largest representation at the national level and which, according to union sources, was meeting today with the company’s management .
Sayagués considers it a “huge mistake” to call a strike, since it means “shooting the workers in the foot” and it is not “the right time.”
CCOO also considers that it is a “serious error” that would put the constitutional right to vote in “serious difficulties” and would go against the vocation of representatives of a public service of Post Office workers.
From CGT, a minority union that has scheduled a plenary meeting in which this matter will be discussed, they see “more than enough” reasons to call a strike, although they consider that the strike would entail very high minimum services, which would dilute its effect.
For its part, the Independent Trade Union and Civil Servants Central (CSIF) calls for the hiring of at least 10,000 reinforcements and ensures that the 2,500 contracts for the May elections “were totally insufficient and caused an extra effort on the part of a workforce that is chronically decimated.
