Postal unions' demand

Sir, - Strikes in essential services like Posts and Telecom wing are not relished by the public, but the situation is created by the government itself in not honoring its commitments to the employees and half-hearted approach to solve the problems or demands put forth. There is also another reason which is discrimination between revenue earning wing of the Ministry of Communications viz. Telecom wing and service-oriented wing, the Posts. When the Telecom employees sometime back threatened to go on strike on the ``privatisation of telecom services issue'' and other demands, the Communications Ministry accepted their demands in toto with a reward that every official of the ministry will get a free phone installed in their home.

The main demand of the postal unions is pensionary and other benefits for the three lakh extra departmental staff. I also accept that extending such benefits to extra departmental officials who are not full time employees is too much for the non-revenue earning Postal Department. Yet one cannot deny the justification of their demands, as most of the rural postal service is run by them. Though employed for a few hours, as against the normal eight hours duty, they are the people who serve remote areas, villages and places where a full-fledged post office is not justified. They also serve for years and many are completing 30 years of service. When an MP or an MLA completes a tenure of office, he is entitled to pension and other benefits. Why deny such benefits for these extra departmental officials. When it comes to comparing free telephones provided to all telecom employees and granting some pensionary benefits to the extra departmental officials, the notional expenditure may be more on the telecom side. The discrimination is clearly exhibited.

Unsatisfactory conditions in service will only dampen the interest of the employees for rendering efficient service and in the long run will be counter-productive. A department that faces every countryman one time or other should be treated in such a way that the employees are fairly satisfied with their service conditions and remuneration.

K. S. Raghavan,

Chennai

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