Mail deliveries resume as court orders postal staff back to work

Postal deliveries should start returning to normal, after a week in which unions picketed sorting centres, preventing mail from going out. Earlier in the week, a court issued a ruling ordering unions to lift their pickets at centres in Brussels, Charleroi and Liège.

“That means that people in the sorting centres can get back to work, and we can deliver letters and packages everywhere in Belgium,” said Bpost spokesperson Barbara Van Speybroeck. Unions are protesting at the disappearance of a wage premium for Saturday work and new rules that make hours and postal routes more flexible.

The court order came as a result of a unilateral petition by Bpost for a ruling, a controversial measure that allows the court to make an order against a third party without the third party having to be heard. The Brussels X sorting centre was the first to see the picket lifted, when a bailiff arrived to inform unions of the court’s decision. “It all took place very peacefully,” Van Speybroeck said. “There were no incidents.”