There are over 500 million deliveries in December: 15% more than in other months

CORREOS BOLSTERS ITS WORKFORCE WITH 1,800 NEW HIRES FOR THE CHRISTMAS CAMPAIGN

• Most of the employees hired have seasonal permanent contracts and are experienced postal workers.
• Furthermore, 600 hours of overtime are forecasted and additional deliveries are being made on Saturdays to maintain the quality and regularity of the service.

Madrid, 18 December 2007. In order to maintain postal and parcel service standards, on 1 December CORREOS activated its reinforcement measures for the Christmas Campaign, in which over 500 million postal objects will be distributed in conjunction with the Christmas holidays: 15% more that the average number of deliveries in the rest of the months of the year.

Specifically, CORREOS has hired 1,825 workers to bolster its staff in the sorting centres, for deliveries and for customer service in its network of offices. Furthermore, the postal employees will work nearly 60,000 hours of overtime.

Most of the reinforcement workers have permanent seasonal contracts, which are designed to meet the cyclical personnel requirements during the summer holidays and at Christmas, one of the busiest times of the year. The incorporation of these employees ensures higher quality in the postal services, as the workforce is reinforced with people who already have experience in CORREOS working processes and in the towns and cities in which they work. The postal company promotes this method of hiring to boost stable, high-quality employment, as established in the current Collective Bargain and General Employment Agreement.

EXTRA DELIVERIES AND CAMPAIGN BONUS

In addition to the usual deliveries, last Saturday the postal workers delivered 10 million letters and parcels, and there are plans to make a special delivery next Saturday, 22 December. Likewise, other deliveries will be scheduled, if the urgent mail requires so, or in the towns considered necessary to attend to the extra volume of deliveries due to local festivities.

In compensation for these extra delivery days and the 60,000 hours in overtime foreseen, postal workers participating in this special Christmas campaign will receive an average bonus of €182.

MORE TRANSPORT AND LETTER BOX COLLECTIONS

CORREOS has also bolstered transport and links to necessary points, and will collect the post from the letter boxes more often on the days and in the towns where the greatest volume of deliveries are forecasted. Furthermore, the introduction of the new MARABÚ II computer system, included this year in the letter box collections, will contribute decisively to improving this process.

To attend to this peak in postal traffic, CORREOS' 16 automatic sorting offices will work 24 hours a day, Sundays and public holidays included, so all the automatic processing equipment for both normal post and A4 paper size post will be kept fully operational throughout the Christmas Campaign.

The post offices have also reinforced their customer service staff for posting and collecting their deliveries.

NORMALISED DELIVERY

All these measures guarantee that the massive amount of post and parcels at Christmas is distributed in the normal times and with CORREOS' quality and service standards. Postal delivery is up-to-date and normalised. It is important to note that the nearly 40,000 CORREOS postmen and women, including the rural postmen and women, make around 25 million deliveries each regular working day at Christmas.