Postal Strike Begins Today

Some 600,000 employees of the department of posts are to start an "indefinite strike" today. The strike was to have started yesterday, but was deferred since it coincided with a government holiday.

The decision to go on strike follows the breakdown in talks between top department officials and representatives of staff unions. Employees belonging to two unions, National Federation of Postal Employees (NFPE) and Federation of National Postal Organisations (FNPO), will join the strike to press demands relating to implementation of the Justice Talwar Committee and payment of bonus.

The unions plan to go on strike despite an appeal by the communications minister Sushma Swaraj and a recent decision by the government to increase the salaries of postmen and mail guards. R U S Prasad, secretary, department of posts, said here yesterday that the unions were unfair in their demands.

 

There are three important demands as part of the ten-point charted put forward by the unions. One, is an upward revision of pay-scale of postmen and mail guards; two, a removal of the ceiling of 40 days for payment of bonus; and, three, implementation of the Talwar committee recommendations.

In its report submitted in March last year, the Talwar committee had suggested that the department of posts regularise some 380,000 extra departmental agents (EDAs), who are not permanent employees of the department.

The committee had estimated the financial burden of the move to be under Rs 300 crore, but government sources say the figure would be upwards of Rs 1,000 crore annually.

Said Prasad, "It is not a decision we can take all of a sudden. The government is aware of the demands and is discussing its at the top levels; but the unions should give us some time." EDAs are paid between Rs 800 and Rs 1,700 per month depending on the scale.

"They typically work between two and five hours a day. Most of them are in the villages where the traffic is minimal. Almost always, their main vocation is not postal duties," the department of posts secretary claimed.

The service conditions of EDAs are different from other government employees in that their retirement age is 65 years, compared to the latter's 60 years.

Meanwhile, Prasad added, all the chief postal general managers in the states have been asked to be ready to face the strike. "We have a regular drill for such strikes. The postal chiefs will be in touch with state administrations and give protection to employees who want to report to work and man the counters.

"Also, protection to valuable articles in transit will be accorded," he revealed. The department of posts handles some 1,500 crore articles of post annually, which works out to over 40 million articles a day. The department of posts is the second largest employee in the government with some 660,000 employees _ second only to the Indian Railways.