NFPE & AIPEU GDS (NFPE) JOINTLY SUBMITTED A DETAILED MEMORANDUM ON GDS ISSUES
TO
Shri NARENDRA MODI JI, THE HON'BLE PRIME MINISTER OF INDIA,
Shri RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD, HON'BLE MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS & IT
Ms. KAVERY BANERJEE, SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF POSTS
ON 02-06-2014
Sub: - Submission of Memorandum
– request benign consideration.
At the
outset, we whole heartily record our wishes and appreciations for assuming the
charge as the Secretary, Department of Posts and seeking your mercy in
mitigating the hardship of the poorly paid GDS employees. With due respect and
regards, NFPE & AIPEU-GDS (NFPE) are submitting the following issues for
your kind and sympathetic consideration and favourable decision in resolving
the genuine demands of the 2.73 lakhs downtrodden and poor GDS employees
working in the Department of Posts.
1. DEPARTMENTALISATION OF RURAL POST OFFICES AND ALSO GDS
The Supreme Court in its judgement delivered
on 22.07.1977 held that the ED employee now called as Gramin Dak Sewaks is not
an agent, not a casual labourer, and not a part time worker but he is the
holder of civil post outside the regular civil service and therefore declared
that Article 311(2) of the constitution of India is attracted. Except conduct
and service and application of disciplinary provisions, no other benefits
available to the Departmental employees are extended to the GDS employees. The
question of departmentalisation of GDS remains pending for long and is being
denied continuously on one pretext or the other.
In the present set up of the socio -
economic structure of rural areas, the daily wages for an agricultural labourer
has been fixed much above the daily rate of a GDS. Resultantly, the GDS
employees are not able to meet the family expenses and have one square meal a
day.
The
declaration of Justice Talwar Committee that “95.70% joined the Postal
Department as ED agents hoping to get full time absorption and only 4.08% took
it as a side occupation” is the real fact still prevailing and they are solely
depending upon their wages for their livelihood”. In rural areas, still many of
them are underpaid and lesser in the standard of living while comparing the
MNREGS beneficiaries.
Specific Recruitment, Disciplinary and Appeal
Rules for the ED agents were framed by the Director General P&T Department
in the year 1935 and by the year 1947, as has been noticed by the First Central
Pay Commission, the ED agents were subjected to Government Conduct Rules and
Postal Regulations. Thus their status was recognised as Government Servants and
eventually, in the year 1959, as civil servants by promulgation of the
statutory rules under the proviso to Article 309. Therefore, this is an unfair
labour practice and subtle violation of the judgement of the Supreme Court of
1977 in non-grant of civil status to GDS. It is violating of Article 14 and 16
of the Constitution."The repeated attempt to read Article 311 (2) in
isolation is entirely misconceived and untenable. ED Agents who are being treated
as 'outside the regular service and not to be considered as civil servants
excepting for the purpose of disciplinary inquiry is unfortunate and symbol of
continuous exploitation despite the liberation ensured in the Apex Court. The
present system of class within the class among the Civil servants shall be
dispensed with.
Notwithstanding
our genuine claim to declare the GDS as holders of civil posts and dispense the
class within the class which is in violation of Article 14 & 16 of the
Union Constitution, we wish to put forth the feasibilities of such
departmentalisation of GDS and improve the services with the existing
infrastructure in an effective manner.
With
the hope of departmentalization at one day, the GDS are prolonging their life
with more expectation of their future. Their hopes can be considered by
introducing various new services in the rural areas with the cooperation's of
the Human resource ministry and by introducing various social and developmental
activities.
The
Post office alone has such a vast network and infrastructure and it can be
fully utilized by providing various new services to rural public through post
offices by its own saving bank scheme to distribute the Govt welfare measures
as if we are doing under the MGNREG Scheme.
We
may attempt with the following works to provide more services to public as well
as in paving way for the justification to departmentalise all the existing BOs.
1. The work likes pension payment, sale of
certificates, direct booking of money orders, SB operations with maintenance of
independent ledgers may be assigned to the departmentalized branch office so
that the existing branch postmasters will be entrusted with more work.
2. If the proposal of full
computerization of BOs is materialised in the ensuing year as proposed, there
is every possibility of introducing all kinds of bill services and commercial
activities in the rural areas like acceptance of Electricity bills, land
revenue, panchayat taxes etc under the business activities of the Postal
department or tie up with such governmental organizations.
3. Large scale expansion of telecom can be
explored through the branch offices and acceptance of all telephone bills,
mobile bills may be entrusted. The Department of Posts may also consider in
taking licences for running telecom services in rural areas with subsidised
rates to cater the requirement of rural public as if in vogue in many foreign
countries.
4. Since all the BOs are proposed to be
provided with hand held computers and decided to introduce various new
financial services, it is possible to maintain the following works also in the
BOs very efficiently with the manpower available in abundance which is underutilized
at present.
a) Collection, maintenance and
modifications of any of the work related to Census in rural areas.
b) Maintenance, Verification and
preservation of records pertaining to the Citizens identity card issued by the
Govt of India directly by the Dept of post.
c) Extension of MGNREGS work through post
offices by providing work norms for the work instead of incentive as at present
extended.
d) Enhance the working hours for eight
hours and introduce various new works at village level with the cooperation of
other Govt and public sector organizations.
e) Ensuring all various new schemes
introduced by the Govt as its policies will be reached to the village level
through our network and infrastructure spread over the nation.
5. It is pertinent to mention that there
are more than 20% of the existing BOs having the work load for more than six
hours. In accordance with Marathe time test under para 93 (iv) and para 114 (i)
if a single handed post office is having 11 hours’ workload, the second PA can
be augmented. On the similar analogy such BOs having more than six hours
workload can be straight away departmentalized. The recommendations of the
Justice Talwar Committee to freeze the GDS system in order to departmentalize
all the existing GDS should be given a due consideration.
6. In order to departmentalize the GDS, the
department should consider for fixing the norms for the following works
immediately.
1. Work related to MNREGS payment.
2. Work related to verification of
Electoral roll & Election work.
3. Work related to collecting statistics
for Census etc.
4. Work related to verification of mobile
phone connections of BSNL & others.
5. Work related to acceptance of
Electricity bills, water bills & telephone bills.
6. Work related to business activities,
social security schemes introduced in various circles.
If time factors for all the work
performed by the GDS is formulated, certainly it will pave way for the
regularization of many GDS who are actually working for more than six hours but
not availed the benefits of departmentalization.
If all the GDS are departmentalized by
scrapping the existing GDS system with eight hours work and each official is
assigned with various new works to improve the functioning of rural post
offices in order to make it more remunerative will overcome the financial
problem. This vast infrastructure will really be an invaluable asset to the
department in this era of e-commerce and e-governance and not at all a
liability. If post offices are kept open for more hours by introducing more new
items of work, there is every possibility of increasing the workload.
It is humbly requested to kindly consider
the above and cause action to departmentalise the rural post offices and
improve the rural postal network.
2. CONSIDERATION OF GDS ISSUES BY THE
SEVENTH CPC
The observation of the Fourth Central Pay
Commission on this issue is furnished inter
alia:
"A
letter was received from the Ministry of Communications (P&T Board) for
exclusion of the extra departmental employees, numbering about 3 lakhs, from
the purview of our inquiry. It was stated that the system of extra departmental
agents was peculiar to the P&T organisation and was designed to extend
postal facilities in rural and backward areas where opening of regular
departmental post offices was not justified due to inadequate workload. The
remuneration and the conditions of service of Extra Departmental Agents were
also different from those of regular Government employees. The Third Pay
Commission accepted the view that the extra departmental agents were not
holders of civil posts and decided to exclude them from its purview.
The matter is, however, beyond controversy
after the decision of the Supreme Court in Gokulananda Das's case where it has
been declared that an Extra Departmental Agent is not a casual worker but
'holds a post under the administrative control of the state' and that while
such a post is outside the regular civil services, there is no doubt that it is
a post under the 'state'. In view of this pronouncement, we were unable to
accept the contention that extra departmental employees were outside the
purview of the terms of our commission. They, no doubt, have their own peculiar
conditions of service and, in that sense, their case is somewhat special. We,
therefore, could not exclude them from our consideration, but we accepted the
Government's suggestion for the setting up of a one - man committee to look to
their conditions of service as was done by the Second and Third pay
commissions."
From the above observation, it is crystal
clear that the Fourth Pay Commission was in the conclusion that the ED Agents
are civil servants even though they are kept outside the regular civil service
and therefore their cases are included within the purview of the pay commissions.
In fact, all the earlier committees headed by the officers did no justice to
this category and the report of the Justice Talwar on GDS had gone to dust bin
by rejecting almost all the recommendations. We have explained in details that
they should be treated as holders of civil posts for all purposes and their
service condition, pay and other issues should be considered only by the Pay
Commission. Justice Talwar has observed in his report that in future, there is
no need for separate committee to address the problems of GDS and it will be
remitted directly to the Pay Commissions. The Dept of Posts also sought
clarifications from the nodal ministries whether their case can be remitted to
the proposed Seventh Pay Commission vide its letter dated 17.2.2014 and
therefore we request that the issues of the GDS may please be remitted to the
seventh pay commission for consideration.
3. WITHDRAW
THE NEW GDS (CONDUCT & ENGAGEMENT) RULES, 2011 AND BRING THEM UNDER THE CCS
(CCA) RULES 1965.
The P&T ED Agents (Conduct &
Service) Rules 1959 were framed treating the ED agents as holders of civil
posts within the ambit of Article 309 and 311 of the Union Constitution on the
advice of the Law Ministry itself. But after the 2nd Central Pay
Commission, the Extra Departmental Agents (now called Gramin Dak Sevaks) were separated from the regular Central Govt.
employees and treated as a distinct category by framing separate set of rules
called “Postal Extra Departmental Agents (Conduct & Service) Rules, 1964”
which are not statutory.
The Supreme Court in its remarkable
Judgement in 1977 in the case of P.K. Rajamma held that the EDAs (GDS) are
holders of civil post and comes under the provisions of the Article 311 of the
Union Constitution. Despite the fact, the Department of Posts modified the EDA
(Conduct & Service) Rules, 1964 into Gramin Dak Sevak (Conduct &
Employment) Rules, 2001 which is also a non-statutory Rules. After the Nataraja
Murthy Committee, the said non-statutory rules were again amended and modified
as Gramin Dak Sevak (Conduct & Engagement) Rules, 2011. All these rules are
non-statutory ones. The following two provisions will exhibit the cruelty of
the revised Rules 2011.
i.
The Rule 3 of GDS (Conduct & Engagement)
Rules 2011 affirms that the GDS employees shall be outside the civil service of
the Union and a sevak shall not claim to be par with the Government Servant
(this should be deleted and the facilities should be extended to the GDS
officials as applied to the whole time Govt Servant.)
ii.
The Rule 9 does not classify the penalties into
minor and major penalty. There is no provision of withholding of increment for
specific years and a reduction in TRCA. (In the absence of such provisions,
even for minor charges, the GDS employees are awarded with a major penalty of
removal, dismissal etc.)
Therefore, it is requested to
withdraw the non-statutory rules and apply the Central Civil Service
(Classification, Control & Application) [CCS (CCA)] Rules 1965 to the
Gramin Dak Sevaks as they are declared as the holders of the civil post by the
Apex Court in 1977 itself.
4. ENSURE MINIMUM STATUTORY MONTHLY PENSION OF RS.3500/- TO GDS
AND GRANT ALL OTHER RETIREMENT BENEFITS LIKE GRATUITY ETC., BASED ON THE
FORMULA APPLICABLE TO DEPARTMENTAL EMPLOYEES AND UNDER GRATUITY ACT, 1972
BESIDES FAMILY PENSION FACILITY TO GDS.
It is long a pending demand for Gramin Dak
Sevaks who expected to get some social security for their old age life,
retiring at the age of 65, after serving the department for decades with meagre
allowances. The Supreme Court held that they are holders of Civil Posts. Their
relationship is Master and Servant. As such, they are entitled for pension and
other retirement benefits. Justice Talwar also observed that the ED Agents
deserve grant of pension not only because of the social obligation of the State
but also due to Rule 2 of the Pension Rules which is applicable in their cases
also. Justice Talwar categorically emphasised that they are entitled and
eligible for pension and other retirement benefits at par with departmental
employees. This was not accepted.
Though a scheme introduced later after the
Natarajamurthy Committee recommendation for GDS called ‘Service Discharge
Benefit Scheme’, no minimum guarantee has been provided to get certain amounts
in a benefitable way besides the amount earned from GDS remained with others
without any obligation from the Dept. or Govt. A minimum guaranty amount in the
name of pension should be ensured and it also should be extended to the
eligible bereaved family member as a family pension.
Similarly, under the provisions of Gratuity
Act, 1972 GDS should get the benefits of Statutory Gratuity and the existing
one is against to the provisions of the Gratuity Act 1972. The Hon’ble Supreme
Court also held and declared that full benefit of Gratuity would be given to
GDS under the State’s Act.
It is therefore requested that they should
be brought under the Pension scheme at par with regular departmental official
and also covered under the Gratuity Act 1972.
5. REDUCE
CASH HANDLING NORMS FROM RS.20,000 TO RS.4,000 AND ALSO STAMP SALE NORMS.
The Natarajamurthy Committee has drastically
reduced the work norms around twenty times which determines the Time Related
Continuity Allowance (TRCA) of GDS and in particular, the norms for cash
handling has been revised twenty times higher than the existing which reflected
reduction of wages to the maximum Branch Postmasters and brought them to
minimum TRCA. The Committee appointed under the Chairmanship of Sri P. Gopinath
to review the retrograde recommendations of Natarajamurthy Committee by the
Secretary, Department of Posts before their implementation had recommended that
atleast the cash handling norms should be Rs.10000/- instead of the proposed
Rs.20000/-. Whereas, it has not been considered by the Cabinet stating that the
second committee appointed by the Department is not the statutory committee and
not considered any of its recommendations on this subject. This gives a big
blow and kicking below the belt of the GDS and on the nature of working
conditions of the BO. The reason behind imposing such a norm is far away from
the practical observations prevailing in the work spot of the department.
The same was discussed once again by the
Special committee appointed for the same purpose under the Chairmanship of Sri
V. P. Singh and the Committee through its report submitted on 27.4.2012
recommended to reduce the cash handling amount from Rs.20000 to Rs. 10000/- for
getting one point. The Internal Finance Wing has raised queries and not allowed
to implement the decisions of the two Committee’s recommendations as well as
the assurance of the Secretary, Department of Posts in various occasions to
Unions in writing. The genuine problem is being protracted, prolonged and
snatched away the salary of the poor GDS who faced reduction of monthly wages
heavily.
At present, the 50 points for fixation of
TRCA to GDS BPM could be earned only after making transactions to the tune of
Rs.10,00,000/- per month in rural offices under the small savings schemes viz., Post Office Recurring Deposit
(PORD), Post Office Time Deposit (POTD), Post Office Savings Bank (POSB) and Rural Postal Life Insurance
(RPLI). On an average a BO works for 25 days in a month, the BPM has to handle
cash Rs.40,000/- per day by working in a BO for 3 hours which is practically
not feasible and unimaginable to do the transactions in rural areas apart from
handling cash to such extent.
Similarly it is not at all possible to sell
the stamps in a BO to the extent of Rs. 900/- to earn one point for the BPM.
The norms revised can be applied to bigger head post offices not to the rural
branch post offices. This has resulted in erosion of wages to the BPMs. Further
it resulted in abolition of many GDS stamp vendors posts.
The Department
has agreed to provide norms for cash remittance from branch office to account
office vice versa in January 2012 itself whereas no action has so far been
taken to provide points to the BPM for fixation of TRCA.
Apart from the above, the following irregularities
and injustice prevailing in determination of norms may be sorted out
1.
In case of item of work (i) – the
assessment of points on handling of unregistered letter 3 days test figures to
be taken during the middle of the month. This will not suffice to fulfill the
norms as there are vast changes are taking place in transmission of mail etc.
and suggested that at least 15 days average figures may be taken into
consideration and the staff check may be for 5 days.
2. Savings
Bank transactions – There is no norms fixed on the work related to Indiramma
Housing Scheme accounts, BPL accounts etc.
3. There
is no specific mention about the periodicity for revision of allowances to BPMs
based on new norms.
4. Assessment
of work load on the average of four quarterly month is unjustified as there is
vast diversity of nature of work in BO depending upon various conditions
prevailing in villages, the necessity for availing leave by BPMs etc. caused
fluctuations in points arrived that too last year of the periodicity leads
discontinuance of regular work in BOs and suggested to take an average of 12
months during the periodicity for revision.
It is therefore requested to review the
revised norms scientifically and protect the GDS for the unwarranted wage cut.
6. ENSURE
FULL PROTECTION OF TRCA WHEN THERE IS FALL IN THE WORK LOAD. TRCA SHOULD NOT BE
REDUCED UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.
The provision of protection of allowances
(TRCA) to GDS was introduced in 1970s and there are clear cut instructions that
under any circumstances, the wages of the GDS should not be reduced. As the
policy decision that the salary drawn by a Govt official should not be reduced
under any circumstances, the provision was made as a security to this poor GDS.
Recently, after the drastic and unrealistic cut in the norms, many GDS have
lost their pay to the extent of Rs.1500 to Rs.1800 per month and they have lost
more than 25% of their monthly income. When the issue was discussed with
Hon’ble Minister of State for Communications & IT on 17.1.2012, the Hon’ble
MoSC assured that there will be no reduction in the wages of the GDS. Whereas,
in the orders released by the department, the protection of wages was extended
only to one year. In no department, such wage reduction is taking place.
It is therefore requested to consider and
rescind the orders of the department providing protection for one year thereby
confirming the provisions prevailing in more than three decades that under no
circumstances, the wages should be reduced to these GDS in the Department of
Posts.
7.
REMOVE
THE OUTSIDE RECRUITMENT QUOTA FOR POSTMAN & MTS RECRUITMENT AND 100%
POSTMAN & MTS VACANCIES BE GIVEN TO GDS.
The Revised Recruitment Rules, 2012
curtailed the opportunity of the seniority-cum-selection from the GDS to
Postman and vacant unfilled posts after the selection through departmental
examination from GDS & MTS would be thrown to open market which is unjust
and against the stand adhered over five decades. Similarly, the vacant unfilled
posts of MTS (25%) offered to open market is also much discouraging for the
senior GDS officials for their selection under seniority-cum-selection
provision. The provision of 50% seniority cum selection has been totally
snatched away. The promotions to MTS and Postmen from the GDS cadre are treated
as direct recruitment only. As such there is no need to remit the unfilled up
vacancies again to open market. The 50 years old age practice has been modified
resulting in the freezing of fair chances to the three lakh GDS who are waiting
for the regular absorption in the departmental posts like postmen and MTS.
As the GDSs are rendering their unblemished
and efficient services for the department with meagre allowances for decades,
the little opportunity of selection ensured earlier to enter departmental cadre
shall be protected.
8. REMOVE
THE 50 POINTS CONDITION AND PROVIDE COMPASSIONATE APPOINTMENT TO ALL ELIGIBLE
DEPENDENTS IN THE FAMILIES OF DECEASED GDSs.
The
present parameters laid down for the selection of eligible candidates from the
bereaved families of deceased GDSs for compassionate appointment in GDS posts
is totally unjustified. The selection of an eligible and qualified person from
a bereaved family is nothing but to ensure and protect the family of the
deceased GDS and that should not be restricted in the name of merit points etc.
In
many cases, the conditions could not fulfilled up to 50 points due to village
conditions, education etc. Resultantly, the compassionate appointments are
summarily rejected and the family of the deceased GDS are in lurch and left
with the same indigent conditions.
It
is therefore requested to kindly consider the same and remove the minimum 50
point condition and provide opportunities to the bereaved family members of the
GDS.
9. REVIEW OF CASH CONVEYANCE ALLOWANCE
After introduction of various schemes in the
BOs viz., MNREGS, Indiramma Housing Scheme, Social Security Payments, POSB,
RPLI payments, Bill Collections etc., the quantum of monetary transactions and
remittances have been increased manifold and the conveyance of cash from AO to
BO vice versa is almost order of the day. The recommendations of the
Natarajamurthy Committee to grant Rs.50 as allowance for cash remittance to
meet the expenditure on each occasion has been wrongly briefed to the Cabinet
as Rs.50 per month and it has been approved as Rs.50 per month only which is
not at all sufficient to meet the conveyance with heavy risk factors carrying
lakhs of rupees for MGNREGS payment etc by the GDS officials. It is necessary
to revise the instructions accordingly as per the recommendations of the
Committee to meet the expenses of GDS working in BOs in such occasions carrying
heavy cash in risk.
10. PAYMENT OF RENT FOR BO BY THE DEPARTMENT OR REQUEST TO ENHANCE
THE GRANT OF OMA @ RS.500/- PER MONTH
According to the rules, the Branch Office
should be maintained in the premises or the house secured by the BPM. In fact
in many cases, the selection of a BPM is from a distant place and the incumbent
has to secure house in that BO village by paying rent to the building for such
post offices. The demand of rent is more in villages near by the towns and
caused the BPM hard to afford house rent hugely from their pocket. The present
sanction of Office Maintenance Allowance could not meet the very purpose of
running a BO in the premises of the house of the BPM and the OMA needs to be
revised at least to Rs.500/- per month till such expenditure borne by the
department.
11. WELFARE MEASURES TO THE GDS
Notwithstanding our request for
departmentalisation of GDS, the following sensitive and serious issues
pertaining to GDS are being protracted and not considered for years together.
i.
Grant of all kinds of leave including casual
leave, earned leave, commuted leave and special casual leave as in the case of
departmental employees.
ii.
The women GDS are being granted only three
months wages from welfare fund in lieu
of maternity leave (not maternity leave) whereas other departmental women
employees are entitled for six months maternity leave and two years child care
leave. The leave salary shall be paid from the salary head and not from the
welfare fund collected from the GDS.
iii. The
restriction on transfers by mentioning specific cases of GDS and reduction in
the TRCA in case of transfer have not been relaxed.
iv.
The request of three time bound promotions or
financial upgradation granted departmental employees may be extended to all the
GDS on completion of 10, 20 and 30 years of service in GDS cadre, has not been
entertained by the department. Some career progression should be introduced to
motivate the GDS.
v.
Unscientific combination of duties resorting in
BPMs and other cadres causes reduction of business and also it is the
exploitation. The combination of duties should be thwarted.
vi.
At present, there is no incentive increment for
small family norms or there is no provision of educational assistance like CEA.
No welfare provision is available. Even, no medical facilities have been
provided yet. The medical insurance scheme as recommended by the Committee has
not yet been finalized. At present they are not having any reimbursement of
medical expenditure. It should be provided.
vii. There
is no Leave Travel facilities provided to GDS. Similarly, they have not been
granted with any advance except bicycle advance.
viii. There
is abnormal delay in sanction of RPLI incentives to the GDS and in many circles
the bills are pending over two years. This will demotivate the officials in securing
more business to the department. The prompt payment of incentive every month
shall be ensured.
In short, the GDS system is
still remaining as an anachronism and it should be revamped by making all the
GDS as full time employees by entrusting more work, utilizing them optimum for
the postal service which will improve our service as well as enthusiasm to the
GDS further .
We fervently request you Sir, to
kindly bestow your personal attention and mitigate the grievances of the three
lakh workforce in the Department of Posts who are praying mercy and fair play
before you with their folded hands over three decades.
With
profound regards,
Yours
faithfully,
(M. Krishnan) (P.
Panduranga Rao)
Secretary General General
Secretary
NFPE AIPEU-GDS
(NFPE)
09447068125 09849466595
09447068125 09849466595
//COPY//
