NEW DELHL: The four day old postal strike was called off on Dec.10, with the communications minister, Sukh Ram, virtually giving in to the demands made by the unions.
‘This includes lifting of the ban on creation of additional posts at the Grouped level, which has been on since 1984 and a higher interim relief of Rs 50 per month to the three lakh extra departmental agents (EDAs) of the postal department.
The development was a major victory for the unions not only because of the concessions they had been able to secure, but because the successful strike has nipped in the bud various moves towards privatization and cost saving measures that were being thought of by the department which made a loss of nearly Rs 160 crore in 199293. The breakthrough in the strike followed two rounds of talks between the officials of the Postal Services Board and the unions that morning. This meeting itself was a result of the meeting between the unions and Sukh Ram late at night on Thursday where the latter is believed to have conceded many of the points raised by the representatives of the strikers. According to sources, before that the minister called on the Prime Minister presumably to discuss the issue of resolution of the strike. On being asked whether the employees would have to forgo the salary for the strike period, he said; these things will be decided during negotiations between the unions and the Postal Services Board, though union sources indicated that it had been agreed to decide the issue in their favor. Probably a little later.
The negotiations begin this week and will work out the details of a proposal that will be presented to the finance ministry; this would include working out the extra number of posts that are required.
Bulk mail centers are some sort of corporate post offices recently started to cater exclusively to companies which have to despatch a huge volume of post every day. Unions had perceived this step as a move towards ultimate privatization and had thus opposed it Faruqi’s communication also grants an increase in holiday allowance for postmen and agrees to set up an EDA committee headed by an outsider to look into the problems of the extra departmental agents, especially to look into the feasibility of starting a pension scheme for them.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 17, 1993
