Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has promised not to allow the Ukrposhta postal company to stop delivering pensions to Ukrainians and said that the company’s management should resign if it disagrees that pension delivery is an important social function, the CFTS portal reports, citing the government web portal.
“It is unacceptable not to deliver pensions to pensioners. They should begin cost cutting with their own salaries. If Ukrposhta’s management does not understand the importance of the company's social function and their position on this issue remains unchanged, I would advise all of them to submit letters of resignation…" Groysman said.
According to Groysman, the Cabinet of Ministers plans to ask Ukrposhta’s recently appointed independent supervisory board to assess the situation and influence the company's management.
Groysman said that Ukrposhta’s management should consider developing profitable areas of operation if the company did not have sufficient funds to pay decent salaries.
Ukrposhta’s General Director Ihor Smelianskyi said in a recent interview in the Uryadovyi Kurier newspaper that the company was planning to optimize its pension delivery network in villages if the pension delivery tariff was not changed.
"We will stop delivering pensions on January 1, 2019. We will close 5,000-7,000 stationary offices and dismiss some of the administrative and production staff," he said.
Smelianskyi has repeatedly stated that the pension delivery service is unprofitable and that the pension delivery tariff needs to be reviewed.
