Bpost will start delivering packages on Sunday

Bpost will start delivering packages on Sunday
Credit: Belga

Belgium's postal service Bpost will also start delivering packages to people's home address on Sundays from February 2021.

The Sunday-deliveries are part of a large-scale one-year pilot project set to start on 7 February, that trade unions and Bpost's management reached an agreement on.

"We already delivered parcels on Saturdays and now, at the request of some customers, we are going to extend that service to Sundays," Bpost spokesperson Veerle Van Mierlo told De Standaard.

For years, the trade unions were opposed to Sunday work, but they said that they now see that there is a growing demand for it.

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"The old unionists would be turning in their graves if they heard that we now deliver packages on Sundays," said Jean-Pierre Nyns of the socialist trade union ACOD. "We are taking a historic step. The world is changing, whether we like it or not."

Working on Sundays will exclusively happen on a voluntary, and employees will be paid 150% of their wages that day. Only if Sunday coincides with a public holiday, no packages will be delivered.

After a year, the system will be evaluated. "We are getting signals that there are a lot of volunteers," Nyns said. "In the first instance, it concerns 250 extra jobs. And that could quickly grow to 500."

For the past two years, Bpost has had a limited Sunday delivery service, meaning it prepares the packages, but the delivery is carried out by independent suppliers.

Due to the lockdown and the end-of-year rush, Bpost is currently flooded with packages, resulting in delays. An extra delivery day could spread the flow of orders more widely, but it is unworkable to implement it now in a hurry, according to the company.

Maïthé Chini

The Brussels Times


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