FIGHT FOR EMANCIPATION OF GDS
At the insistence of the Postal JCA the Postal department again wrote to the Government for referring the GDS issues to 7th CPC last month but it is confirmed that the Government has rejected it unjustifiably. There appears to be no place in the heart of the Prime Minister and all his words of Man Ki Baat do not show any reference to this toiling and exploited section of postal family. The Postal Department accordingly is preparing to constitute another Nataraja Murthy type of Officer Committee to go into the wage structure issues of the GDS. This exercise will no doubt result in repetition of our age old experience of denial of justice to GDS and will not even be useful to rectify some fundamental errors in fixation of pay to various categories of GDS on par with its historically comparable category of regular employees. The Postal Employees movement cannot tolerate this type of callous attitude from the Government that spends more time only with the issues of Indian and foreign corporates.
NFPE and the Postal JCA are committed to fight for the cause of GDS and for their inclusion in the ambit of 7thCPC. NFPE was successful in unifying the entirety of the CG Employees movement including the Railways and Defence to effectively place before the government through the Staff Side JCM as well as an important demand in the charter for struggle by the CG Employees. The distraction caused by the industrial action of GDS at the call of some other organisation has been taken advantage of by the government to foist an officer committee by applying divide and rule theory. NFPE and Postal JCA are not going to fall for the tactics of the Government but will raise the banner of struggle as promised time and again since the formation of the Pay Commission.
There can be only a single reason for the adamant attitude of the Government. It is clear that if a Pay Commission gives out its recommendations it will be highly difficult for it to reject it but it can reject easily the recommendations of any judicial committee as was done to Justice Talwar Committee recommendations. It can of course obtain a very favourable report through an officer committee. But the movement had lived through this game of the Government throughout its existence. We cannot allow the Government to succeed this time and once again cheat the two and a half lakhs of GDS, who always stood strongly in all struggles of the Postal Employees movement by undergoing all types of sacrifices including during the times of bonus ceiling struggle. It is time to repay to the cause of GDS by the Postal regular employees work force.
The Task Force Committee’s recommendations to effect a complete structural change of the India Post and open the doors for the ultimate privatisation of the India Post pose a serious challenge to the entire postal movement. The recommendations cannot be ignored as the same are coming out of the high power committee constituted by the Prime Minister and headed by a former Cabinet Secretary. Any let up on our side will result in a fate-accompli situation and once the Government takes a final decision on the recommendations it will be too late for the existence of the Postal Department as a Government Service. The Postal JCA cannot be a silent spectator to the destruction of the entire edifice of Postal Department before its own eyes.
There are other serious issues in the Charter but the existence of the Postal Department as a government department and referring the wage issues of two and a half lakhs of GDs to 7th CPC as against the decision of the Government to constitute once again an officer committee and cadre restructuring of all cadres, are the important issues on which no compromise can be made by the postal movement.
Time to get into the arena of struggle with total confidence that united struggles always win. We appeal to all GDS employees that irrespective of their loyalties all should join this crusade against injustice being perpetrated against them time and again. We appeal to all departmental regular employees that it is time for our movement to be ready for making any sacrifice for the cause of our downtrodden GDS brothers and sisters. Let us march ahead in the path of indefinite strike and register victory.
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