Tsunami of post office closures ELTA

By July 17, the number of closed ELTA post offices in Greece will reach 65. The closing of the branches, according to the authorities, is part of the restructuring plan, but it caused a storm of protest in local communities.

As already reported by the site ethnos.gr, on Monday, July 10, the first 25 post offices were closed. According to the plan, a total of 10% of 1,150 branches will be closed, although the exact number has not yet been announced.

Over the weekend, Transparency’s website published decisions to suspend trading activity at another 40 post offices. These include branches of the major municipalities of Attica, such as Kesariani, Papagos, Peania, and after the closure of today’s post office in Kolonaki. According to the new list, the next branch will be in Votanico.

This issue is considered important for the country’s municipal authorities, as it contributes to further isolating the regions of the region, and the Central Union of Municipalities of Greece (KEDE) is preparing a loud speech. “We will immediately speak to the competent ministry,” Lazaros Kyrizoglou, KEDE president and mayor of Ampelokipi-Menemeni, told ethnos.gr.

He recalled that, as assured by sources in the company, not a single municipality throughout Greece would be left without a “living” post office, stressing that the points being closed – many of which are single-person, i.e. have only one employee – they did not bring profit either in turnover or in the salary of employees working in them. Now they will team up with nearby branches to provide better service to citizens and reduce queues. At the same time, he notes that these changes will not affect the workplace.

It should be noted, however, that in the course of the last reform of the municipalities of Kallikrates, even the relatively large municipalities of Attica were merged into an autonomous entity, while in the region the municipalities and villages were merged into new post offices, which began to occupy an area that was a multiple of the original one, and, consequently, serviced distances for the movement of citizens remain a problem in many cases.

The fact, however, is that ELTA is currently in a marginal situation, as the €280 million financial injection provided to ELTA to rescue it in 2020 from Greek taxpayers not only failed, but now funding capital is completely exhausted.

Moreover, the Panhellenic Federation of Postal Workers (POST) drew attention to this in an information document sent to employees after meeting with the new management, which, in particular, highlights the following: “The company has a significant financial operating deficit, which is a matter of survival requiring immediate decision. Time to intervene to save the mail is short, and it is counting down. “

However, the new Minister of Digital Governance, Dimitris Papastergiou, sees mistakes and… results in previous policies. In his speech in the context of parliamentary policy statements, after he hastened to clarify that the only competence that the ministry retains in ELTA is the control of universal service and equal access for every citizen in the border and island regions, as they belong to Ypertafond , he added that “this is by no means an excuse for not interfering.”

However, he acknowledged and pointed out the mistakes: “ELTA has gone from charging Greek citizens 7.5 million postal items per month and is now moving towards a much better future. Thanks to the efforts and despite the mistakes made, the first results are already visible.”

Papastergiou did not object to the reduction of the network of ELTA branches, where they are located in close proximity to each other, and said: “The work must continue. It is impossible in the center of Athens, within a radius of one kilometer, to have two large and ten small points. The network must be restructured with using new technologies without leaving small communities without help and without putting anyone’s work at risk.We have already held discussions with the management of the postal and post office to see targeted improvements now, so that not a single urban or suburban area is left without extremely accurate and correct postal services within a few minutes drive”.

PS Judging by everything, the population is preparing for the privatization of the Greek postal service, otherwise how to explain the situation, that every year the situation in this state structure is getting worse and worse.

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