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News
Finally! Serious plans to modernise postal service
Ingrid Brown browni@jamaicaobserver.com
Friday, February 19, 2010
THE Public Sector Transformation Unit (PSTU) is moving to modernise the postal services, under a new thrust to create more efficient Government entities.
"You will be seeing a modernised post and telecoms entity in a completely different format than what currently obtains," Pat Sinclair McCalla, chief executive officer of the PSTU, told senior journalists at a media briefing held at Jamaica House in Kingston yesterday to provide an update on the work of the PSTU.
General secretary of the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions, Wayne Jones, while supporting the move, said the more than 300-year-old Jamaica postal service could be divested through the Employee Share Ownership Programme (ESOP), an initiative of late former Prime Minister Michael Manley.
"The ESOP is something that can work, not just for the postal service but throughout the public sector," he said, adding that it was something which has worked very well elsewhere in the world.
According to Jones, the trade unions have been pushing for some time for the postal service to become more than just a place to deliver letters and parcels.
"Years ago when Government proposed to divest and privatise the postal services, the unions proposed that instead of doing that they could commercialise the operation," he said.
Jones said this would entail post offices provide other services, which has become the mode of survival for international postal services, instead of simply mailing letters and parcels.
"All that has happened is that we have seen the addition of Lotto windows and bill payment areas in the postal service," he said.
He noted, however, that Jamaica's legislative process had not been brought to finality, thus holding up the process.
"The legislative process just needs to catch up," he said.
According to Jones, the more than 2,000 postal workers want to be able to do a better job as they recognised that the advancement of technology was rendering their jobs redundant.
"...They don't believe they are adding value with what they are being given to do," added Jones.
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2/19/2010
The ESOP initaitive when implemented will hopefully bring about more efficiency as the workers will expend more energy and time in carrrying out their duties as partowners of the entity.
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