Letter to customers regarding Belgium

Dear customer,

On Monday 28 March, we were jolted once again by aggressive action on the part of the Belgian legal authorities against PostNL people in Belgium and against the delivery partners delivering your and our parcels in Belgium. Two of our depots were sealed off and a number of our colleagues were even arrested. This course of action by the Belgian legal authorities is extremely intimidating for our people, of course, while prosecutor for the employment courts Gianni Reale has used the media to accuse us of “people trafficking”, being a “criminal organisation” and “forgery”.

I fully understand that, as our customer, you may well be concerned about these reports, hence this letter.

There has been no official notification whatsoever of the serious allegations, that are being aired without any evidence. We are totally in the dark as to what these suspicions are based on, making it very hard for us to defend ourselves against these persistent allegations.

We emphatically deny such major allegations, and would point out that the picture being painted does not resemble our daily work practices. As far as we’re concerned, there are no grounds whatsoever to besmirch PostNL’s good name in this fashion, and we consider this action out of all proportion and unacceptable. We stand firmly behind our people and delivery partners and are doing everything within our power to secure the swift release of our colleagues.

The way this situation is being handled raises major questions about the arbitrariness displayed by the relevant authorities in their actions. I should reiterate that, over the past few months, we have consistently provided our full cooperation with the authorities’ investigations and questions, and that no major or structural wrongdoing in our way of working has come to light. Meanwhile, we have further enhanced our controls and taken additional measures to ensure compliance with the country’s social legislation.

We will defend our position forcefully and we look forward with confidence to any legal procedures that might ensue. At the same time, we will continue to cooperate fully – as we have done to date – with all investigations made and questions asked by the authorities.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: we stand by our people and our delivery partners, as a modern and engaged employer and client. And we will of course continue to take care of the millions of online orders that we deliver to consumers for you and for all of our customers, and do so with our own people, our own regular group of delivery partners and with their deliverers – in a customerfriendly, social and sustainable way. Every single day.

I will keep you posted on this situation, but if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We value the trust our customers place in us and want to keep you fully informed.

Best regards,
Liesbeth Kaashoek Director of Parcels & Logistics Benelux, PostNL