La Poste: 290 agents left the company as part of negotiated departures

The first phase of the negotiated departures plan of Société nationale La Poste enabled the departure of 290 volunteer agents out of more than 360 candidates. This measure is part of the financial recovery and transformation of the company.

According to the Senegalese Press Agency (APS), the general director of La Poste, Maguette Kane, announced on Friday in Dakar that 290 agents had left the company at the end of the first phase of the negotiated departure plan. More than 360 requests had been registered. On the occasion of World Postal Day, he specified that this operation took place in a peaceful social climate and with respect for workers’ rights.

Restructuring to control costs

The negotiated departure plan aims to gradually adapt personnel costs to the company’s level of activity. La Poste is facing the decline of traditional mail and the transformation of its businesses, in a context marked by changing uses and the rise of digital services.

The data presented during the Interministerial Council devoted to La Poste, on September 1, 2025, illustrate the extent of the imbalance. Between 2012 and 2021, the group’s workforce increased from around 2,600 to more than 4,100 agents, an increase of almost 60%, while its turnover fell by 26%.

According to Maguette Kane, the planned trajectory provides for around 250 departures per year over three years. This projection, however, remains indicative and will depend on the financial capacities of the company, the number of voluntary requests as well as the skills essential to the continuity of the public service.

Focus on new skills

Restructuring is not limited to downsizing. Management also intends to adapt human resources to the future needs of the company, particularly in the areas of digital, logistics, e-commerce, digital financial services and customer relations.

A skills assessment is therefore planned to identify the professions expected to evolve and the expertise to be strengthened. The objective is to enable La Poste to develop new activities while improving its productivity and preserving the skills essential to its operation.

For the general director, the success of this approach cannot be measured by the number of departures alone. It involves reconciling cost control, maintaining strategic skills and improving the quality of service provided to users.

Social dialogue as a condition for success

Continuing dialogue with trade union organizations and worker representatives also constitutes an important issue in this restructuring phase. Management wishes to preserve a peaceful social climate throughout the process.

Monitoring of the plan should in particular make it possible to assess its effects on payroll, the quality of public service and the company’s capacity to consolidate its new activities. So many indicators which will make it possible to assess the results of restructuring beyond just voluntary departures.

CGD