Bpost to launch Sunday delivery pilot project from February

Bpost will launch a large-scale pilot project on 7 February to deliver parcels on Sundays, according to a report published in De Standaard on Thursday.

"We are already delivering on Saturdays and we will now extend this service, at the request of a few customers, to Sunday," a spokesperson for Bpost told the Flemish daily. "The pilot project will last one year. We will assess along the way whether it should continue or not.”

Sunday workers will be paid time-and-a-half with an extra day off awarded to those who work 12 Sundays. Employees can volunteer for the project, called Paksun, until mid-December. By the end of 2021, the company, which is 51% owned by the government, wants to employ more than 300 people to work on Sundays. Bpost previously operated a very limited Sunday delivery service, via a subcontractor, which ran for two years.

Trade unions, which have opposed the principle of Sunday work for years, have now agreed to an increased flexibility in the status of postal workers. "This is a historic milestone," according to Jean-Pierre Nyns of the ACOD union.