Russian Post announced a dialogue with the leadership of the regions about the shortcomings of the work of local branches

The Russian Post said that the problems with local divisions, which were reported last week in the Ivanovo and Pskov regions, are “old”, but they are being resolved, including in dialogue with the authorities. In both regions, gubernatorial elections are taking place in 2023, and deputies of the legislative assembly are also elected in the Ivanovo region.

“To date, thanks to timely dialogue and the search for optimal solutions in the regions where local authorities have previously voiced proposals to improve the activities of the post office, we have already agreed to resume the work of 168 rural branches. We are also jointly considering the issue of moving branches located in critically worn-out premises to buildings made of prefabricated structures, ”a postal representative told Vedomosti.

The heads of regional branches “have taken personal control over the delivery of periodicals and are in operational contact with the heads of municipalities in order to immediately resolve emerging issues.” At the same time, the Russian Post itself is in active dialogue with the leadership of the Pskov region, “in order to develop measures that will help overcome long-standing problems.”

According to the interlocutor, the mail was in critical condition: “The new management team has developed a plan to bring the mail to sustainable development. One of the main focuses of the mail is to improve the quality of service. Since the beginning of the year, the number of complaints about the work of branches has decreased by 21%, and about a long waiting time for service – by 2 times.”

The reaction followed after the work of the departments was criticized by the authorities of the Ivanovo and Pskov regions. Under the guise of optimization, workers are transferred part-time and people receive less than 10,000 rubles for their hard work, the press service of the branch of the party of power in the Ivanovo region says: “Naturally, postal employees are fired throughout the region. And all residents suffer from this, especially the elderly, who are used to receiving pensions and newspapers with the help of postmen.”

United Russia discussed the work of the mail at a meeting of the presidium of the regional political council on July 12. The regional “United Russia” claim that in the course of optimizing the post offices, the interests of the residents of the Ivanovo region were not taken into account.

The secretary of the regional branch of the party, Sergei Nizov, promised to fight for the interests of postal workers and residents “in the toughest way, from demands to restore order from the regional department of Russian Post and ending with a request for inspections to regulatory authorities.”

On the same day, July 12, the governor of the Pskov region, Mikhail Vedernikov, spoke radically about the Russian Post at a meeting with activists from the Bezhanitsky district. “We lost circulation of regional newspapers several times. They presented us with an ultimatum for the increase in the rate for the delivery of correspondence for justices of the peace. At a job fair, who do they want to lure for a salary of 12,000 rubles? We do not understand their position. Yes, this is a business, but there must be a dialogue,” he said.

According to the governor, at the end of July, a meeting is planned between the leadership of the Pskov region and the leadership of the Russian Post: “We will talk to them, if we can’t get through, we will turn to the chairman of the government.”

Russian Post did not make decisions on layoffs and closure of branches, and claims are heard due to the fact that the company decided to stop the practice of combining several positions by employees, a member of the board of directors of Russian Post, head of the Duma Committee on Information Policy and United Russia Alexander Khinshtein. People work less, get lower wages, and therefore quit, he explains.

According to Khinshtein, he supports his colleagues from the regions that post offices should not be closed: “But there are no decisions to close branches, just finding new people is problematic. We expressed our position: the part-time system was initially ill-conceived and led to negative social consequences.” The state will not be able to solve the mail problem without finding sources of funding, he says: “Among other things, the initiative with the delivery of pensions by Russian Post should help. We hope that there will be no problems now. And we will not allow the social functions of the post office to be reduced.”

Dissatisfaction with the work of the Russian Post has manifested itself in the regions where gubernatorial elections are coming up, political analyst Rostislav Turovsky said. Russian Post performs important social functions and it may be beneficial for the authorities to criticize it, he believes.