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26.01.2022
As the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the operations of Latvijas Pasts intensifies, more than 130 employees involved in the provision of postal services and delivery of items are currently on sickness absence, and a total of 85 post offices and delivery processes throughout the country are being affected. In these circumstances, the opening hours of some post offices have been changed and several more post offices will be closed down temporarily, transferring their functions to the nearest post offices where there is still a sufficient workforce resource. Latvijas Pasts points out that bigger or smaller delays in the provision of services and deliveries are therefore possible in many places in Latvia.
Latvijas Pasts has not stopped operating for a day in the challenging conditions of the COVID-19 virus, and the company’s employees provide both item delivery and customer service throughout Latvia. Also now, Latvijas Pasts continues to provide all services, but points customers’ attention to that fact that delays in the provision of services and delivery of items are possible as a result of the increasingly aggressive spread of the disease. Latvijas Pasts revises the delivery and service processes on a regular basis and acts in accordance with the current situation, however, as the spread of COVID-19 continues, the negative effects of the virus have an increasing impact on the company’s operations.
Currently, more than 130 employees of Latvijas Pasts who are directly involved in the provision of services and delivery of items – post office operators and postmen – are sick. In total, the operations of 85 post offices across the country are hampered. The work of the post offices in Riga and the metropolitan area of the capital, and Zemgale and Kurzeme Regions are most affected, but a number of employees in Vidzeme and Latgale post offices are also on sickness absence. In this situation, Latvijas Pasts was forced to temporarily reduce the opening hours of several dozen post offices and close some post offices for the moment, transferring their functions to other post offices where the workforce resource is still sufficient. If the number of sick employees and contact persons continues to grow, it is possible that Latvijas Pasts will have to change the business hours of other post offices as well, and during the absence of the employees, some post offices will have to be merged.
In order to achieve maximum protection for employees and customers, Latvijas Pasts has introduced stricter measures for the security of employees and customers, which also means shift work and, consequently, a gradual and uneven delivery process, which may not meet the previously set deadlines. To ensure distancing among postmen, the employees of Latvijas Pasts come to work according to a specially designed schedule: some postmen start work in the morning at the usual time, but some – an hour or two later depending on the specific post office, when the first shift of the postmen would be out delivering mail, thus preventing contact of larger groups of employees. Thanks to this system, the possibility of contact among employees is minimised; however, these security improvements mean slowed down and delayed deliveries.
As a result of the infection and the expansion of the number of contact persons, Latvijas Pasts temporarily has to fully replace its customer service or delivery staff in the post offices and delivery points, thus burdening other structural units from where temporary employees are brought on, or looking for new employees for the time being.
Considering that the process of replacement of staff takes place on the go, as it involves the immediate implementation of epidemiological security measures, new staff – postmen or post office operators – are trained right on the job, which inevitably leads to slower service and delivery of items. For example, new postmen have to get a grasp on the addressing system in a specific area, which is often complex and opaque, in record time, while post office employees have to learn how to provide all the services – from the processing of postal items to money transfers.
The work of postmen is additionally hampered in many places by uncleaned roads and disorderly letter-boxes located in inappropriate places, incorrectly designed, unidentified or simply non-existent. It should be noted that the number of people served on the spot and, consequently, the number of cash register systems have been reduced at several dozens of post offices due to security requirements.
Up-to-date information on changes in the opening hours of the post offices is available here. Please note that it is variable and the data is regularly updated.
About SJSC Latvijas Pasts
Latvijas Pasts ensures the widest availability of postal services throughout Latvia by maintaining more than 600 post offices. The primary function of the company is provision of the universal postal service; Latvijas Pasts also provides commercial transport, express mail, payment, press subscription, retail and philatelic services. Latvijas Pasts is a wholly State-owned company with about 3,000 employees. The quality measurements of Latvijas Pasts domestic mail deliveries are regularly conducted by Kantar TNS, one of the leading market, social and media research agencies in Latvia. In turn, the quality measurements of the cross-border deliveries are provided within the framework of the International Post Corporation through the intermediary of the research companies Kantar TNS, Ipsos and Quotas.
Additional information:
Gundega Vārpa | Head of External Communications
E-mail: pr@pasts.lv; gundega.varpa@pasts.lv
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