An Post delivers €43m loss for 2003

OPERATING losses at An Post nearly doubled last year, despite company assurances last January that it would make a €1 million profit.

The company's annual report to be published next week records a spiraling operating loss of €43m, compared to €17.9m the previous year.

Although An Post's new chief executive, Donal Curtin, warned last September it was facing significant losses in 2003, the latest annual report, which was cleared by the Cabinet this week, confirms the company's dire financial state.

It is understood that Tuesday's Cabinet meeting focused in particular on industrial relations and how rising losses can be stemmed.

In the Dáil last month Communications Minister Dermot Ahern said he had sent An Post's annual report back to the company several times before bringing it to Cabinet because he did not believe the extent of the losses it revealed.

With those losses running at over €600,000 a week and difficult Labour Relations Commission negotiations over a management recovery plan ongoing with unions the prospects for 2004 are thought to be significantly worse than expected.

The company has consistently pointed to a rising labour and overtime bill as one of the primary reasons for soaring costs.

Under the recovery plan, the company is seeking to shed almost 1,500 jobs in a bid to return to profitability by 2005.

Before this year's dispute with the Communications Workers' Union (CWU), which disrupted mail services for two weeks, losses for 2004 were expected to be close to €30m.

However, the cost of the dispute and any concessions won by the CWU in LRC discussions over new working arrangements will add to losses next year.

A spokesman for An Post said there were no real surprises in the annual report to be published next Thursday and indicated the company still hoped to reduce losses to €30 next year.

CWU national officer Sean McDonagh said it was too early to predict how the LRC talks would turn out, but blamed management for An Post's mounting losses.

"Our view is that a lot of what happened was down to bad management.

"But the losses are a little down on what was first expected and the company doesn't have any actual debt," he said.