Dutch postal company PostNL has revised its plans to replace 10,000 postal delivery workers by freelancers, saying it wants to use the experience of its permanent staff.

In a statement on Monday, PostNL chief executive Herna Verhagen said: ‘The personnel migration towards a part-time organisation will be done in a more phased manner and we will better balance the mix between experienced and new employees.’

The company had planned to cut the number of permanent delivery workers by 2,800, but this will now be a maximum of 650.

Last summer the company halted plans to shift sorting post to just nine locations nationwide after experiments ran into trouble. Instead, the 260 sorting offices will be reduced to 125.

PostNL has also been in the headlines after it emerged 300 delivery workers were sacked last year for failing to deliver post, either by dumping or stealing it.

PostNL’s turnover rose slighly to €4.3bn last year, while net profit reached €678m. Operating profit was €291m, slightly down on 2011, as the volume of addressed post fell 9%.