Postal workers will miss Elmar Toime

The postal workers’ union, the EPMU, says that departing New Zealand Post chief executive Elmar Toime will be missed.

“Our industrial relationship with the company has been very good,” said EPMU national secretary Andrew Little, “a model of good union/employer engagement.”

Mr Toime had, despite political attacks over the past two years, retained the confidence of the EPMU’s 5500 members at New Zealand Post, Mr Little said.

“We’ve hosted three or four delegations from overseas unions in the past two years who have come to look at the way New Zealand Post and the EPMU work together,” he said.

Mr Toime had taken what was supposed to be the “ugly duckling” of the country’s State-owned enterprises and made it into a profitable organisation that returned substantial amounts of money to the government – even after deregulation of the postal industry, Mr Little said.

“We are sorry to see Elmar Toime leave New Zealand Post, but we wish him well for his new job in the United Kingdom,” he said.

“He goes with the best wishes of his workforce.”

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