A CTT workers' group has launched a petition demanding the State's buys back shares in CTT, currently a private company.
The objective is to defend the Universal Public Service arrangements which the current management seem adept at working their way around, to the detriment of users.
The petition, which will be taking signatures until the year end, states that since CTT’s privatisation in 2014, "the company has pursued a path of disrespect for its public service obligations which should be underpinning the concession in force between the State and CTT," and that the total privatisation of the business has been, "a gross error" that can not be resolved solely with "the imposition of fines by the regulator."
One of the subscribers to the petition, Samuel Vieira, a CTT official, told Lusa that the aim of the action is to collect the maximum number of signatures, manually and via the Internet, by the end of this year and then deliver the document to parliament at the beginning of 2019.
The petition urgent demands the Portuguese State buys shares in CTT-Correios de Portugal, to allow the State to intervene in this essential public service and to focus management on the Group's modernisation and its sustainability.
The authors of the petition no longer can countenance the current strategy that is ruining the public postal service and irreversibly is destroying its structure.
"The State must enforce the public service obligations and must demand that a quality universal postal service is guaranteed on equal terms to all citizens,” reads the petition.
The document states that the privatisation of CTT was carried out, "by the ultra-liberal government of the PSD / CDS-PP coalition in a hasty way and without the necessary guarantees of rigour and protection of the public interest," and that most citizens and economic agents have lost out as a result.
In July this year, the Secretary of State for Infrastructures, Guilherme d'Oliveira Martins, guaranteed that CTT would not be renationalised, while warning management that the Government would not tolerate incompetence or any default in the postal service.
CTT has closed 53 stores this year and opened 70 outlets in locations including parish councils, bars, cafes and stationers. It share price has slumped and profits have eroded as the reorganisation of the business takes its toll.
For the petition, see: https://peticaopublica.com/pview.aspx?pi=PT91394
See Comment below: "If you want to sign the petition, the form will accept your residency number instead of the Cartão de Cidadão,"
CTT's response to an algarvedailynews enquiry about store closures, reads as follows:
"CTT has been strengthening access points throughout the country, maintaining the relationship of proximity with the population and ensuring that the needs of the clients are assured.
"We now have 2,392 Access Points, that’s 75 more CTT Access Points compared to 2014, the year of privatisation. More than 100,000 customers a day use these outlets.
"CTT Access Points are opening at a faster rate than Post Offices are closing.
"These solutions aim always to provide a better overall quality in the services that CTT provides and to ensure the provision of the public service such as the payment of social benefits, delivery of warnings and the payment of invoices, have the advantage of being more convenient for the population.
"This retail network maintains a strong presence and proximity to the populations and, through the association with partners, this network contributes to the development of the local economy."
The link http://www.ctt.pt/feapl_2/app/open/stationSearch/stationSearch.jspx shows all current outlets.
