EITHER FIGHT OR PERISH
M. Krishnan
Ex- Secretary General, NFPE &
Confederation
1. Central
Government employees, particularly postal employees have a history of one and a
half century of struggle spanning from pre-independence period to
post-independence era. I am not venturing to explain the history of that period
of sacrifice, brutal repression, severe punishments, and martyrdom in this
article. That can be, on another occassion. I am trying to explain the common
character of the struggles conducted by the Central Government employees and
postal employees in pre and post independence era and their future task based
on this experience.
2. If one analyse
the struggles organised during seventy years period prior to 1947, it can be
seen that majority of those struggles were mainly for achieving defined wage
structure and service conditions which was not in existence at that period. Thus,
through several big and small agitations and strikes, fixed working hours, wage
structure based on the nature of duty performed, annual increments, leave
entitlement, allowance to compensate price rise, pensionery benefits, right to
organise and collective bargaining were achieved by employees from the most
oppressive and unwilling British Government.
3. None of the
benefits were granted as a gratis by the British Government. Each
benefit was obtained through heroic struggle. The strike oganised by
Postmen of Pune Head Post Office under the guidance of great freedom fighter
Late Balagangadhara Tilak in the year 1880, the indefinite strike of Telegraph
workers in 1908 under the leadership of Henry Barton, the indefinite strike of
1918 by Postmen of Mumbai under the leadership of V.G.Dalvi, the struggle
organised by Potal Clerks in the years 1920-21 against the retrograde
recommendations of Postal Enquiry Committee Report under the inspiring
leadership of late Tarapada Mukherjee, the founder father of Postal Trade Union
movement, the historic speech and clarion call for struggle by Tarpada
Mukherjee in the 1921 Lahore speech and his consequent dismissal from service,
the non-coperation agitation in 1931 of Postal employees under the leadership of
Dada Ghosh, the 25 days strike of 1946 which is written in golden letters in
the history of Indian Independence struggle, commenced by Postmen of Mumbai and
then joined by entire P & T employees and finally converted into a biggest
working class strike, inspired and guided by the revolutionary leader Late
K.G.Bose, who electrified the entire Central Government employees movement ---
all these struggles were organised for achieving new benefits which were not
available to Central Government employees till then. Most of the
benefits which are now enjoyed by the Central Government employees are the
result of the prolonged struggles conducted in pre-independent India, during
British regime. Thousands of known and unnown leaders and workers
had sacrificed their entire life for the cause of posterity during those
period.
4. After
independence (1947) upto 1990’s the struggle conducted by Central Government
employees and Postal employees was mainly for improving or betterment
of the benefits earned during the pre-independence period and to some
extent for realizing some left out benefits like Bonus. The main
cause of the struggles were for betterment of wages and other service
conditions mainly through various pay commission mechanisms and also through
various ED committees in the case of Gramin Dak Sevaks formerly called as
Extra-Departmental Agents. The indefinite strike notice of 1957
demanding appointment of second Central Pay Commission and nationwide
preparations thereof, indefinite strike of 1960 which lasted for five days
demanding modifications and improvement of second pay commission
recommendations, the historic one day strike of 1968 September 19th demanding
Need Based Minimum Wage, 1974 Bonus strike of Railway Employees in which other
Central Government employees also joined as solidarity strike for few days, the
struggle against the attack on wages, DA and other service conditions during
the 1975 Emergency period, the historic 1984 one day strike solely for
realization of GDS demands, many other agitational programmes other than
strikes --- all were conducted for improvement of wages and other service
conditions. These struggles were organised at national level under
the leadership of legendary leaders like Dada Ghosh, K.G.Bose, N.J.Iyer,
K.Adinarayana, Om Prakash Gupta, S.K.Vyas, and N.P.Padmanabhan and many other
leaders in various states.
5. The post
independence period upto 1990’s was also the period of tremendous growth and
leap forward of Central Government services and departments. It was
a period of all-round development of Central services. Through the
five year plan, the Central Government expanded the Central services to all
parts of the nation for catering to various needs of the people like
Communications, health, education, industry etc. etc. More and more
offices were opened in cities and villages. To cope up with the work
load due to opening of new offices and further expansion of services thousands
of new posts were created and lakhs of new employees were recruited and appointed. To
supervise and coordinate the activities of field offices, Administrative
offices at State, Central and Ministry level were also
established. Thus there was big increase in the number of offices
and number of employees in Central Services during this period. The
quality of the services also has improved a lot.
6. This growth
trajectory lasted for 42 years from 1947 to 1990. From 1991 onwards
very big policy change took place in Central Services. Neo-liberal
globalisation policies were implemented in all sectors of the
economy. Central services were not an exception. Closure
of offices, merger of offices, Ban on recruitment, abolition of vacant posts,
Ban on creation of new posts, Largescale outsourcing of the work performed by
Central Government employees, introduction of Casual, Contract and daily rated
mazdoor system, corporatisation of Government departments as a prelude to
eventual privatisation are some of the neo-liberal policies introduced in
Central Government services. Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Pay
Commissions, Expenditure Reforms Commission and various expert committees gave
recommendations to expedite the implementation of neo-liberal policies in all
Central Goverment departments. During this period various types of resistance
struggles were organised by Central Government employees in general and in each
department. In Postal department struggle and strikes against
reorganisation and closure of Post Offices and RMS Offices, outsourcing of
speed post booking, non-filling up of vacancies and closure of Branch Post
Offices took place during the period from 1991 onwards along with the struggle
for improvement of wages and service conditions and also against curtailment of
trade union facilities.
7. From 1991
onwards, the struggle of Central Government employees are mainly against the
neo-liberal policies of closure, downsizing, outsourcing, corporatisation and
casual contract system. Unlike in
the pre-independence period upto 1947 and post-independence period upto 1990’s,
when the struggles were mainly for achieving benefits and
for improving the wages and service conditions, the struggles from 1991 onwards
in the Central Government departments was mainly for job security of
employees. Existence of each department and its employees faced big
challenge from the policy of the Government. Consequently, as a
corollary to these attacks, attack on wage structure, social security and trade
union rights also intensified. The contributory pension system (NPS)
was introduced. Instead of struggle for improving the existing benefits, the
struggle for protecting the existing benefits became more
prominent. Confederation of Central Government Employees
& Workers organised strikes in 2012, 2014 and 2016. The historic
sixteen days All India strike of Gramin Dak Sevaks took place during this
period.
8. The Telecom
department, which was a part of Central Government Services with about
five lakhs employees and 10000 crore rupees yearly profit was
corporatised during the period of neo-liberal reforms. Private telecom
companies are given licences to operate. Government privatised VSNL. Ultimate
result was that BSNL and MTNL became loss making entities and lakhs of
employees were sent out on Voluntary Retirement scheme (VRS).
9. After coming to
power at Centre in 2014, the BJP-led Modi Government started
vigourously implementing the extreme neo-liberal polices of naked privatisation
and dismantling of public sector and Government
departments. In the defence sector the FDI limit is raised to 74%
from 49%. Defence ordinance factories are going to be corporatised
and privatised. In postal department India Post Payment Bank (IPPB),
a public limited company, started functioning. Proposal
for corporatisation of Postal Life Insurance and Rural Postal Life Insurance is
pending approval of the cabinet. Conversion of the existing parcel
Directorate into a seperate company is in the pipeline. Most of the
work now done by postal employees such as booking of registered and speed post
articles, money orders, acceptance of all savings bank deposits etc are going
to be handed over to a public limited company called Common Service
Centre (CSC). If all the above reforms are implemented, thousands
of postal employees will become surplus and their job security will
be in danger. The situation in other Central Government departments
is also more or less the same. Govt’s decision to close down 12 out
of 17 Government of India Printing Preses is an eye-opener to all those who believe
that NDA Government will protect their job. During the Covid-19
pandenic period, the Government has declared unbridled privatisation of all
strategic sectors including Space Research, Atomic energy, Defence production
etc. The refusal of the Central Government to honour the assurance
to increase the minimum pay and fitment formula, rejection of the demand to
scrap Contributory Pension Scheme (NPS) and restore Old Pension Scheme (OPS),
refusal to grant civil servant status and all benefits of regular employees to
Gramin Dak Sevaks, increasing attack on the trade union rights are all part of
this extreme neo-liberal policies pursued by the
Government. Freezing of Dearness Allowance and impounding of arrears
till 30-06-2021 in the name of Covid-19 crisis is another blow to the Central
Government employees. Stringent measures to implement the provisions
of FR 56(j),(l) and Pension Rules 48 is a calculated move by Government to
terrorise the employees.
10. Central Government
employees in general and Postal employees in particular are facing very very
serious challenges and crisis, never faced in the past, due to the ruthless
policies being implemented by Modi Government. Their job security,
wage structure, social security and trade union rights are under severe
attack. How to overcome this situation? How to protect
the hard-won benefits of the employees which are the fruits of the struggle and
sacrifice made by thousands of workers and leaders in the past 150
years? The answer is that the Central Government employees, especially
Postal Employees, who have a history of heroic struggles and sacrifice, should
be ready for uncompromising struggle and for more sacrifices than the
sacrifices of our earlier leaders and workers at grass root
level. Benefits, wages and service conditions which are the products
of hard-won battles of the past, can be protected through still bigger and more
militant struggles only. This is what history teaches
us. There is no short-cut. There is no substitute for the
struggle for existence. There is only two options left - either
fight or perish. Let us not surrender. Let us stand up
and fight. Let us make the 2020 November 26th one day National
Strike a resounding success.
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