Dear Comrades,
A memorandum has been submitted to the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India by the leadership of Confederation of Central Govt. Employees & Workers on 26th July, 2012 after conducting a struggle program viz., "March to Parliament" with the inclusion of following GDS demands.
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Item No. 1.
Revision of wage with effect from. 01.01.2011.
.................................The Grameen Dak Sewaks were excluded from the
purview of the 6th Central Pay Commission as the Postal Department
took an erroneous view that they are not Central Government employees. The 4th CPC had categorically stated that they ought
to have been included within the purview of the Commission’s jurisdiction but
chose to go by the Postal Department’s decision ultimately. As has been
mentioned elsewhere in this memorandum, the GDS constitute the largest chunk of
the Postal Workers. The exclusion of GDS
from the purview of the Pay Commission being
unjust, discriminatory and bereft of any logic, it must be ensured that
the next Pay Commission when it is set up will have the jurisdiction to recommend on wage structure and service conditions of
the GDS.
Item No.
8(b). Absorption of GDS as regular postal employees
The
postal Department employs the largest number of Government employees, next to
Railways and Defence. Nearly half of its workforce is called the
Grameen Dak Sewaks, the new nomenclature given for the Extra Departmental
Agents. The system of EDAs was evolved by the British Colonial Government
to sustain a postal system at a cheaper cost especially in rural areas.
Despite the enactment of very many legislation to prohibit the exploitation of
workers, the Government continued with this system. No doubt in the post
independent era, at the instance and persuasion of the Unions of regular
employees, certain benefits were accorded to them.
Till 1963, the GDS or the
Extra Departmental Agents were treated as Government employees and were covered
by the service conditions applicable to civil servants.
However, the Department of Post reversed this position thereafter and contended
that they are not Central Government employees.
The Honourable Supreme Court in
1977 declared that they are holders of Civil Posts. Justice Talwar
Committee appointed by the Govt. To look into the issues pertaining to GDS
declared that the GDS are holders of Civil posts and all benefits similar to
regular employees must be extended to them.
However, the Government did
not accept this recommendation of the committee which they themselves set up.
On the specific suggestion of the Postal Department, the Government set up a
separate Committee called the Natarajamurthy Committee to go into their service
conditions and suggest improvement on the lines of the recommendations of the 6th CPC. The recommendations of this
Committee were totally disappointing and the GDS in the post 6th CPC era is worse of.
Instead of utilising the
service of GDS for the welfare schemes of the State in rural area by converting
them as regular employees, the Department caused injustice to them by acting
upon the recommendations of the Natarajamurthy Committee.
Recently, the Postal Department has decided that the
vacancies in the Cadre of Postmen, and MTS would not be fully made available
for promotion to the GDS and an element of open direct recruitment has been
introduced. This has decelerated the meagre chance of the GDS being a
regular Postal employee further.
In order to ensure that their grievances
are properly addressed, the Postal Department must be directed to earmark all
the existing vacancies in the cadre of Postmen and MTS to the eligible GDS for
promotion and a scheme is evolved to absorb the GDS as regular full time
Government employees whereby all the service conditions of the Civil
Servants.
Item No.
9.Introduction of PLB and removal of ceiling limit
Barring the Railways, Defence production units
and Postal Department, Bonus is paid to the Central Government employees on
adhoc basis. The 30 days adhoc bonus is
the maximum that is provided to them.
The 4thand 5th Central Pay
Commissions had recommended the introduction of productivity linked bonus
scheme to all Departments as is presently the case in the three Departments
mentioned above. Even the scheme of PLB is not uniform in as much as the Postal
Department introduced a ceiling on the entitled number of days of bonus whereas
no such ceiling exist either in the Railways or in the Defence Production
organisations. The Government is yet to
implement these recommendations even though several rounds of discussions on
the subject were held. There is no
reason whatsoever, as to why this recommendation could not be implemented. There had been no rise in the adhoc bonus for
past a decade even though there had been considerable amount of increase in the
case of PLB over the years. The
Department of Personnel and Expenditure may be advised to finalise the PLB
scheme without further delay for those who are in receipt of adhoc bonus.
Even though Bonus Act is said to have no
application or relevance to the Productivity linked Bonus or adhoc bonus, the
provisions of the said Act is employed to deny bonus to the Government
employees on the basis of their emoluments.
The bonus entitlement in both the cases is restricted to the computation
based on the notional emoluments of Rs. 3500, while the Postal Department went
one step ahead and declared that in the case of GDS, it would continue to be
Rs. 2500.The injustice meted out to the GDS in the matter by the Postal
Department is highly deplorable.
Presently even a casual worker is entitled to get a monthly wage of more
than Rs. 3500. The minimum wage as on
1.1.2006 determined by the 6th CPC in respect of
Central Government employees is Rs.
7000. By artificially linking the
restriction of emoluments stipulated by the Bonus Act, the employees are denied
their legitimate entitlement of Bonus.
It is, therefore, urged that the Bonus entitlement be computed on the basis
of the actual emoluments an employee receives.
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Now, it is clearly understand that our AIPEU-GDS(NFPE) became a part and parcel of entire Central Govt. Employees movement in General and as an Associate Member of National Federation of Postal Employees (NFPE), it is our bounden responsibility to share the shoulder with united postal movement as well as with all working class struggles.
It is decided to hold one day strike on 12-12-2012 by all Central Govt. Employees to achieve their legitimate and justifiable demands with a charter of 15 items.
All the demands placed in the Charter will be followed in an elaborated manner to explain each and every member and conveyed to all Circle, Divisional leaders to make all necessary arrangements to translate in their vernacular language and make good awareness on the demands and need of the series of struggles lead to token strike on 12-12-2012.
The members and leadership of AIPEU-GDS (NFPE) will be prepared to make all the programs grand success at all levels.
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COM C.C.PILLAI, (EX-SECRETARY GENERAL, NFPE) &
President , AIPCPCCWF -- BEREAVED
Smt. Laxmi Kutty Amma aged 70 years, elder sister of Com.
C.C.Pillai Ex Secretary General NFPE & General Secretary R-III expired on 3rd August, 2012.
All India
Postal Employees Union - GDS (NFPE) CHQ conveys its heartfelt condolence to Com.
C.C.Pillai and his bereaved family members