CENTRAL WORKING COMMITTEE MEETING AT PURI

CENTRAL WORKING COMMITTEE MEETING AT PURI, ODISHA ON

19th & 20th NOV., 2017

Dear Comrades,

The Central Working Committee Meeting of the AIPSBCOEA was held at Gundicha Bhakta Niwas, Puri, Odisha from 19th & 20th Nov., 2017 which was organised in a very grand manner by Odisha SBCO Comrades co-ordination with NFPE leaders of Odisha Circle.

The high profile leaders of CCGE&W & NFPE were present in the meeting viz. Com. M. Krishnan, Sec. General CCGE&W, Com. R.N. Parashar, S/G-NFPE, Com. Giri Raj Singh, President, NFPE with local NFPE leaders.

The representative of Association from all Circles have graced the CWC in a large numbers with delegates and participated in length debate & discussion on SBCO issues to save our separate identity by dedication to the extent of struggle action programmes.

The photographs of important events witnessed for CWC are as under :

NFPE CIRCULAR

National Federation of Postal Employees

1^st Floor North Avenue Post Office Building, New Delhi-110 001

Phone: 011.23092771                                                    e-mail: nfpehq@gmail.com

       Mob: 9868819295/9810853981                      website: http://www.nfpe.blogspot.com

  No.PF-01(a)/2017                                                              Dated: 10^th November, 2017

CIRCULAR

To

            All General Secretaries / NFPE Office Bearers     

           All Circle Secretaries of NFPE Unions

Dear Comrades,

            The Federal Secretariat meeting of NFPE with available General Secretaries and NFPE office bearers held at NFPE office North Avenue Post Office. Building New Delhi has reviewed the whole situation arisen out of so many policy offensive and attacks unleashed by the Government of India by the way of authorizing  nationalized banks and private banks for doing business of National small savings schemes, making  the IPPB (India Post Payment Bank) as a corporate entity proposal of closure of A.P.S appointment of out sourced Postal Delivery  agents, cancellation of G.D.S membership verification Delay in implementation of  GDS Committee  Report , Amendment in Rectt. rules of P.A. non filling up of vacant posts in all cadres, non implementation of  cadre restructuring  proposals for other categories and non declaration of result of regular membership verification and so many other issues.

            After a detailed and threadbare discussion the Federal Secretaries has reached to a conclusion that it is the need of hour to resist all these policy offensive and attacks by way of struggles and serious agitational  programmes culminating in to indefinite strike.

            The federal secretariat has decided the following programme of action to achieve the demands as mentioned in charter of demands.

1. Two days Relay hunger fast in front of all Divisional offices on 28^th and 29^th November 2017 (All Employees will wear Black Badges containing demands and will send resolution addressed to Prime – Minister. 

2. Mass Dharna in front of All C.P.M.G offices on 20^th December 2017

3. 5 Days Relay Dharna in front of Parliament from 12^th to 16^th February 2018. (All Circles will participates in Dharna day wise)..

4. After that Indefinite Strike will be declared

CHARTER OF DEMANDS

1. Implementation of positive recommendations of Kamlesh Chandra Committee Report for GDS

2. Membership verification of GDS and declaration of result of regular membership verification.

3. Filling up of all vacant posts in all Cadres of Deptt of Post i.e P.A.S.A, Postmen, Mail guard, mailmen, MTS,MMS Drivers and artisans, P.A CO. P.A. SBCO, Postal Actts and GDS. Drop the move of amendment in P.A. S.A., P.A.CO & P.A. SBCO Recruitment Rules.

4. Implement CSI, and RICT only after providing all required infrastructure including band width and stop harassment , victimization in the name of new schemes   , technology induction, under contributory negligence factor and trade union victimization.

5. Stop out sourcing privatization and Corporatization.

6. Payment of revised wages and arrears to the casual, part time, contingent and daily rated mazdoors as per  6^th & 7^thCPC  and settle other issues of Casual Laboures.

7. Implement cadre restructuring for left out categories i.e. RMS, MMS, PACO, PASBCO Postmaster Cadre, Postal Actts etc and accept the modifications suggested by federation before implementation of cadre restructuring in Postal Group ‘C’.

8. Withdraw N.P.S (contributory Pension Scheme) Guarantee 50% of last pay drawn as minimum pension.

9. Implement 5 days week in Postal Operative offices.

10.  Stop move of diversion of business of P.O SB Schemes to Banks (Nationalized and Private)

11. Stop move of closure of Army Postal Service.

12. Grant OSA and OTA to RMS staff and special allowances for P.O & R.M.S Accounts.

13. Finalization of Recruitment Rules of AAOS IN Postal Accounts with 40% S.C.F quota as approved by DOPT.

14. Status of Audit to SBCO.

15. Benefit of SDBS to retried GDS employees.

Yours Comradely,

                                                                                                     (R N Parashar)

Secretary General

_________________________________________

RESOLUTION

To

           

            The Hon’ble Prime Minister,

            Government of India,

            New Delhi-110 003

Hon’ble Sir,

            The Postal Employees are very much aggrieved and agitated due to the policy offensives and attacks unleashed on Postal Services and Postal Employees. The genuine demands of Postal, RMS and GDS employees are not being settled by the Postal Administration.

            Being aggrieved  we the Postal Employees _____________________ (Name of Division & Circle) have conducted 2 days relay hunger fast on 28^th & 29^th November -2017 for settlement of 15 points  charter of demands (Copy enclosed).

            We on behalf of entire Postal employees request you to kindly bestow your personal attention on the problems of Postal employees  and cause suitable  action to settle those problems.

With regards

Yours Sincerely

Signature of all Divisional Secretaries

 _______________________________________________________________________

CIRCLE WISE AND DATE WISE PARTICIPATION PROGRAMME FOR 5 DAYS RELAY DHARNA AT NEW DELHI

FROM 12^th TO 16th FEBRUARY-2018

DATE	CIRCLES	QUOTA FOR EACH CIRCLE	REMARKS
12.02.18	Andhra  Pradesh	100	(1) All NFPE Unions Circle Secretaries should convene meetings and allot quota to each union and book the tickets to and fro journey in advance to avoid inconvenience. (ii) All General Secretaries /NFPE Office bearers and All India leaders of All NFPE unions will remain present all the  days. Respective CHQ will make their arrangements for stay.
	Telengana	75
	J&K	15
	Himachal Pradesh	30
	Punjab	50
	Delhi	100
13.02.18	Kerala	100
	Karnataka	100
	Haryana	50
	Uttarakhand	30
	Rajasthan	100
14.02.18	Tamilnadu	100
	Maharashtra	100
	Assam	30
	North East	15
	UP(Eastern)	75
15.02.18	West Bengal	100
	Odisha	75
	Bihar	75
	Jharkhand	50
16.02.18	UP (West)	100
	Madhya Pradesh	100
	Chhattisgarh	50
	Gujarat	100

MAHA DHARNA -- LAST DAY

 A SECTION OF PARTICIPANTS  

 The thousands of workers who stormed the national capital and assembled at Parliament Street in the national capital Delhi, to participate in the first day of the three days ‘mahapadav’ on 9^th November 2017 enthusiastically endorsed the call of the speakers to intensify the struggle against the anti worker, anti people and anti national policies of the BJP led government and prepare for a countrywide indefinite general strike if the government fails to concede their demands.

            Workers from all over the country representing many sector - public and private, permanent employees and contract, casual workers, state and central government employees, banks, insurance, telecom, railways, defence, and the various schemes of the government of India participated in the ‘mahapadav’ on the first day.

            Ashok Singh (INTUC), Gurudas Dasgupta (AITUC), HS Sidhu (HMS), Tapan Sen (CITU), Satyawan (AIUTUC), G Devarajan (TUCC), Manali (SEWA), Rajiv Dimri (AICCTU), M Shanmugam (LPF) and Ashok Ghosh (UTUC) addressed the gathering in the first session presided over by Sanjay Singh (INTUC), Ramendra Kumar (AITUC), Raja Sridhar (HMS), Hemalata (CITU), RK Sharma (AIUTUC), Naren Chatterjee (TUCC), Sonia (SEWA), Santosh Rai (AICCTU), Subbaraman (LPF) and Shatrujit Singh (UTUC).

            Leaders of the federations spoke in the second part of the first session. It was most significant that the leaders of the two major national federations of the railway employees - Shiv Gopal Mishra, general secretary of All India Railwaysmen’s Federation and Raghavaiagh, general secretary of National Federation of Indian Railwaymen - have announced that they would join the indefinite strike whenever the joint trade union platform gave the call. Leaders of several other all Industrial federations including Venkatachalam, general secretary of All India Bank Employees’ Association, Subhash Lamba, additional general secretary of All India State Government Employees’ Association and secretary of Electricity Employees’ Federation of India, KK Divakaran, general secretary of All India Road Transport Workers’ Federation, C Sreekumar, general secretary of All India Defence Employees’ Federation, Jagdeesh Sreemali, VS Dahiya, GR Shiv Shankar, Ravi Sen, Peelimuthu, Kalyan Sengupta, also joined them in endorsing the call addressed the huge gathering and announced they would join the indefinite country wide general strike whenever the joint trade union platform took the decision. Thampan Thomas (HMS), Vijay Pal Singh (AIUTUC), Anil Sharma (TUCC), Sonia (SEWA), Mahendra Parida (AICCTU), Natarajan (LPF) and Thomas Joseph (UTUC) also addressed

            H Mahadevan (AITUC), Raghunath Singh (CITU) Shyamlal (AICCTU), Bashir Abud (LPF) replaced their colleagues in the presidium in the second part of the first session. The second session was presided over by Gurnam Singh (INTUC), C Singh (AITUC), SN Pathak (HMS), Anadi Sahu (CITU), Shiv Shankar (UTUC), Lataben (SEWA), Shyamal Prasad (AICCTU), Basheer Ahmed (LPF) and PG Prasanna Kumar (UTUC)

EDITORIAL POSTAL CRUSADER NOVEMBER-2017

EXISTENCE OF POSTAL DEPARTMENT AND POSTAL EMPLOYEES

UNDER ATTACK

WE HAVE TO RESIST IT AT ANY COST.

                   Government has unleashed an unexpected and most damaging attack on Post Office Small Savings Schemes.  Notifications are already issued permitting all Nationalised Banks and three Private Banks (ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and HDFC Bank) to accept deposits for all small savings schemes, viz: Recurring Deposit (RD), Time Deposits (TD), Monthly Income Scheme (MIS), Senior Citizens Savings Scheme (SCSS) Sukanya ‘Samridhi Account (SSN), Kisan Vikas Patra (KVPs) and National Savings Certificate (NSC VIII issue) with effect from 10th October, 2017.

                   Small Savings Schemes are controlled by Finance Ministry and Postal Department is running it on agency basis.  Finance Ministry is paying compensation to Department of Posts for various Small Savings Schemes related work.  About 40% of the total yearly revenue of the Department of Posts comes from Small Savings Schemes.  Permitting Banks including private banks to do small savings business means huge erosion in the revenue of Postal department.  Even otherwise Postal department is running on heavy loss and the decision to outsource small savings business will further aggravate the deficit situation. 

                   Out of total work load of the Post offices 50% workload relates to Savings Scheme work.  In some Post offices even 70% of the work load relates to Savings Bank Branch.  Not only the public directly coming to the Post Office counter for deposits and withdrawls, lakhs of MPKBY Agents and SAS Agents also canvas for various small savings schemes and contribute to the revenue and work load of Post Offices.  Once the banks including private banks starts the Small Savings Business aggressively, the number of transactions in Post Offices will come down.  This will result in reduction in the sanctioned posts for SB work and ultimately staff, especially clerical staff will become surplus.

                   Few years back, a committee appointed by Reserve Bank of India to study the functioning of Post office Small Savings Scheme, headed by Ms. Shymala Gopinath, then Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank, has recommended gradual phasing out of MPKBY/SAS Agents. The Committee has recommended to reduce the Commission paid to the Agents by 1% every year till it reaches 1% level from the present 4% commission.  The commission to SAS Agents are also reduced.  Due to the struggle and intervention of MPKBY/SAS Agents Associations and lefet parties Members of Parliament the commission is retained at 4% for MPKBY Agents.  The present decision of the Government to outsource Small Savings Schemes to Banks will definitely affect the job security of MPKBY/SAS Agents also.

                   Wage revision orders of Central Govt. employees were issued on 25-07-2016.  The demands raised by staff side to raise minimum pay and fitment formula is not yet considered favourably, even though Group of Ministers had given categorical assurance on 30-06-2016.  Consequent on appointment of 7th Pay Commission, Government appointed a one man committee headed by Sri. Kamalesh Chandra, Retired Member (Personnel), Postal Services Board on 19-11-2015 to examine the wages and service conditions of about three lakhs Gramin Dak Sevaks working in the Postal Department.  The Committee submitted its report to Government on 24-11-2016.  Almost one year is over but the favourable recommendations of the GDS Committee are yet to be implemented.  The file was sent to finance Ministry by Postal Board after approval of the Communications Minister.  Queries after queries are being raised by Finance Ministry and the file is still pending clearance.  7th Central Pay Commission Report was submitted on19-11-2015 and it took eight months for implementation of pay revision.  Seventh CPC report was in respect of more than one crore (100 lakhs) personnel including 32 lakhs Central Govt. employees, 33 lakhs Civilian pensioners and about 40 lakhs military personnel and pensioners.  Regarding GDS, there are only about three lakhs employees.  One year delay for implementation is quite unjustified and it shows the attitude of the Government to the most downtrodden section of employees.

                   Re-verification of membership under check off system was conducted for regular employees as per the CCS (RSA) Rules in the year 2015.  Now two years are over, but result of the verification is withheld by the Government for reasons best known to it.  GDS Membership Re-verification process was almost completed and recovery of subscription from pay in respect of Applicant Association/Unions commenced in the month of September 2017.  Suddenly Department issued orders to stop the GDS Membership verification process.  It is learnt that BPEDEU (BMS) which represents only 3 to 5% membership and  not going to get recognition has filed a complaint and based on the complaint the GDS verification process was stopped by the Government.

                   The above happenings are not isolated.  It is a prelude to bigger attacks that is going to come in the coming days.  The job security of Postal employees, their wages and trade union rights are under attack.  We have to resist it at any cost, just like we have resisted and defeated Govt’s move to amend Indian Post Office Act, Closure of 9797 Post offices, closure of 300 RMS offices, Mckinsey Consultancy’s recommendations and the TSR Subramanian Committee’s recommendations, for corporatisation and privatisation of Postal department. 

                   NFPE has already given a call for countrywide demonstrations at all centres and infront of all offices on 23rd October, 2017.

                   Further, major demands raised in our 23rd August, 2017 strike charters of demands are also pending settlement.  NFPE Federal Secretariat shall meet shortly and declare further agitational programmes.

                   NFPE and all its affiliated Unions/Associations calls upon the entirety of Postal and RMS employees including Gramin Dak Sevaks and Casual, Part-time Contingent employees to unitedly resist and defeat this onslaught on our life and livelihood.