Postal dislocation likely from today

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, DEC. 4. The Chief Post Master General (CPMG), Kerala Circle, today said there could be largescale dislocation of postal operations in the State in view of the country-wide strike by three major unions of postal staff beginning from tomorrow.

In a statement issued here, the CPMG said it would be desirable on the part of the general public to restrict postage of letters to those post offices which were kept open during the strike period. While regretting the inconvenience caused to the public, he assured that all efforts were being taken by the department to sort out the issues raised by the unions.

The joint council of the agitating unions, in another statement, said the strike was to press some of the longstanding demands of the postal employees. The demands included regularising the services of extra-departmental employees, correcting the anomalies in the salary structure adopted as per the recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission and withdrawing the ban on recruitments currently in force in the department.

The convener of the joint council, Mr. M. Krishnan, said the Justice Charanjith Talwar Committee, appointed by the Union Government, had recommended taking into regular service nearly 3 lakh extra-departmental employees working in the Postal Services. The committee had submitted its report way back in 1997. In spite of repeated requests from the postal unions, this recommendation was not implemented by the department.

In July 1998, the unions had gone on an eight-day strike to press this demand. It was withdrawn following assurances given by the Prime Minister and Minister for Communications. Even these assurances turned out to be hollow.

Another assurance given by the Government was that a committee would be constituted to go into the anomalies in the salary structure of various cadres of postal employees. This committee too submitted its report in December 1998. The department and the unions had also entered into a bilateral agreement on the approach to be adopted while settling the issues relating to the casual employees. But the Government was yet to implement either the committee recommendations or the points included in the bilateral agreement, Mr. Krishnan said.

He said the department had also issued an order banning fresh recruitments to fill even vacancies which might arise from retirement from service or death of serving employees.

He recalled that the unions had issued notice for an indefinite strike from May 2 this year, in protest against the `breach of promise' by the Government. This strike was called off when the Union Communications Minister, Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan, assured the unions that all the issues would be sorted out within four months.

He said even after seven months, the Government had not kept the Minister's promise. On the contrary, the Government had now taken the stand that none of the demands of the unions could be accepted. Mr. Krishnan said the unions now had no other option than to launch a strike to get their demands accepted by the Government.

The unions involved in the strike are the National Federation of Postal Employees, the Federation of National Postal Organisations and the Bharathiya Postal Employees Federation.

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