“Australia Post robbed us of our retirement”
Australia Post licensees around the country say they’re being rorted by the government-run business, which one couple says has robbed them of their retirement.
Despite booming business thanks to the soaring popularity of online shopping, David and Jen McIntyre say they’re only on track to earn $30,000 this year.
“It can be demoralising and depressing,” David told A Current Affair. “No-one seems to care. They just don’t care what they are doing to us.”
According to the McIntyres (and a number of other AusPost licensees), they’re not being paid fairly for their hard work.
“The busier you are, the less you’re earning,” David explained. “That’s the reality. Mum-and-dad investors put their life savings into a government-run business and this is what we’ve copped. They [Australia Post] should be ashamed of themselves.”
The main driving force behind the licensees’ dissatisfaction is an agreement that was written in 1993 and has barely been updated in the 25 years since. As a result, licensees are still being paid the same dismal rate to handle mail, despite the explosion in volume of parcels thanks to online shopping.
The agreement doesn’t take into account the size of the parcel, how much time and handling it requires on the part of the worker nor how long it’s stored in their post office. For example, licensees get paid a flat rate of just 37 cents for scanning a PO box parcel.
Workers say it isn’t enough, and that they simply don’t have the time or capacity to be doing so much work and receive so little in return.
“In 2010, we were doing 10 hours of unpaid work a day to deal with the parcels,” Angela Cramp, an AusPost licensee in Wollongong, told ACA. She estimates she’s lost over $1 million thanks to the outdated agreement.
Brisbane licensee Lynairre Poless has a similar story, and is struggling to keep her post office open.
“They keep saying that we’re a vital part of their network, that we’re needed and wanted and trusted, and important to our communities,” she said. “But it’s all lip service, words mean nothing, I want action, I want action... we need action.”
And the situation is only more infuriating when licensees see the eyewatering salaries of their higher-ups. In 2016, former boss Ahmed Fahour took home $13,795,900. Last year, that number soared to nearly $20 million.
In a statement to ACA, AusPost said they will be reviewing their payment system in response to the overwhelming number of complaints from licensees.
Image credit: Channel Nine.