Swiss Post considers cutting up to 110 jobs

Swiss Post is considering cutting up to 110 jobs. The company announced this in a statement released on Monday. The stated goal is to reduce internal costs, in order to keep funding the public postal service in the long term without drawing on taxpayer money.

The planned cuts concern management and internal support functions. Customer-facing services and operational staff, meaning those who deliver mail or work at branch counters, are not affected.

Behind the decision lie changing habits among the population. People are sending fewer and fewer letters and increasingly prefer online payments over counter transactions. According to Swiss Post, growth in other business areas is not enough to offset this decline.

The company's strategy rests on four pillars: proportionate pricing measures, internal efficiency, targeted growth in the core business, and modernization of the regulatory framework.

Chief executive Pascal Grieder explained the decision: "Abbiamo la responsabilità di garantire che la Posta preservi la propria rilevanza, efficienza e autonomia finanziaria anche in futuro. Per questo intendiamo ridurre i costi interni laddove non hanno un impatto diretto sulla clientela, offrendo così il nostro contributo" (We have the responsibility to ensure that Swiss Post preserves its relevance, efficiency and financial autonomy in the future as well. That is why we intend to reduce internal costs where they have no direct impact on customers, thus offering our contribution).

The union's response

This is not the first time Swiss Post has intervened in management and support functions: it is already the second such reduction since 2024.

The transfair union has asked the company to first assess every alternative to layoffs: professional retraining, internal redeployment, and keeping jobs within the Swiss Post Group.

The case revives a question that has accompanied the transformation of the postal service for years: how to guarantee the self-financing of a public service without shifting the burden of technological change onto the people who work there. Swiss Post insists the cuts will not affect anyone in direct contact with customers. For administrative and support staff, however, the prospect of a smaller workforce remains, in a sector already marked by years of restructuring.