General Secretary’s Desk
(Received from General Secretary, AIPEU Group 'C')
Dear Comrades,
MAY DAY GREETINGS
Indefinite Strike from 05.07.2011
You would have received Bhartiya Post May 2011 issue by this time wherein we published all the JCA Circulars including the Charter of demands and programme of action. The current circular of JCA dt. 28.04.2011 is also enclosed herewith for appropriate action.
Responsibilities & Duties before You
(i) Form JCA if not in existence in your division earlier. Approach other sister unions for such formation and in case of any problem in formation of JCA, please intimate the General Secretary through your Circle Secretary who has been nominated as in charge of your circle and send copy to the CHQ.
(ii) Please shed down all differences whatever it may be at grass root levels since it is the time and dire need to unite for a successful massive action against the policy offensives of the Postal department.
(iii) Organize state level conventions as the dates mentioned and ensure full participation of all divisional/branch Secretaries and Circle office bearers of all unions for working out plan and strategy for 100% participation of postal workers duly strengthening the movement.
(iv) Ensure your participation in the All India Convention of Postal JCA scheduled to be held at Chennai on 19.06.2011. Before that, Please conduct a massive Dharna in front of Divisional offices on 25.05.2011 in effective manner. Meet the members’ office wise and organize them. Further meet the people’s representatives, intellectuals and important personalities and convey the dangers we are facing due to the foreign consultants leading to privatization of postal services and seek their intervention. Pl translate the JCA circulars in state language for wide circulation among the members.
(v) Apart from the conduct of State convention, the Circle Secretaries may invite the incharge office bearers nominated for the circle to attend meetings at other work spots and take their fullest assistance in organizing the comrades for massive action. All circle secretaries shall arrange tour programme division wise and important office wise and depute its office bearers for organizing all the postal workers irrespective of the union affiliation explaining the importance of the demands and the programme of action now proposed.
All of us should not forget that our proposed struggle from 05.07.2011 is mainly nothing but to save the Postal department and keep it as Government Service. The proposals collected through Mckinsey & Accenture either for corporatization or privatization and to dismantle the existing Department’s structure shall not be allowed at any cost. The proposals for introduction of Public, Private Partnership will lead either to corporatization or privatization of service at last and the proposed core banking is nothing but of that basis as per the recommendations of the expert committee. A very dangerous situation is before us and if we allow, we don’t know what will be our position after some time.
We have to resist the attacks now unleashed against the Govt. postal service and we have to save the department. Financial demands are not given top priority this time since we have to ensure our service as Govt. service. Telecom is the glaring example and after the corporatization BSNL is now almost shrinking. All of you are requested to take serious action for organizing the workers for the indefinite strike from 05.07.2011.
The Clarion call was given by Postal JCA. Organize the workers very effectively for the indefinite strike from 05.07.2011. Time is very short. Pl act swiftly from now onwards. Pl send the copies of bulletins issued at branch levels for our notice and also report about the meetings of public personalities requesting their effective intervention along with photos for publication in the journal. Shall I seek all your response comrades?
GDS (Conduct & Engagement) Rules 2011
The Department vide its letter No. 21-8/2010-GDS dt. 18.04.2011 has amended the existing GDS (Conduct & Employment) Rules 2001 as GDS (Conduct & Engagement) Rules 2011 as per the recommendations of Nataraja Murti Committee.
The main crux of the amendment is nothing but to modify the ‘Employment’ into ‘Engagement’ so that the GDs employment may further be treated as an engagement like contingent, part time etc. The following are the other major revisions.
(i) Recruiting Authority means an authority to engage GDS on the basis of GDS (Conduct & Engagement) Rule 2011. ( Note hereafter it is only engagement and employment)
(ii) A Sevak shall not claim to be at par with the Central Government employees. (Earlier in was as ‘Servant of the Government’ Now they are no more Government employees. They are being engaged in the postal service as if contract)
(iii) Residence in Post village/delivery jurisdiction of the Post office within one month after selection but before engagement shall be mandatory. (The new provision for the modified rules is as follows)
“Failure to reside in place of duty for GDS BPM & within delivery jurisdiction of the Post office for other categories of Gramin Dak Sevaks after engagement shall be treated as violative of condition of engagement and liable for disciplinary action under Rule 10 of the Conduct Rules, requiring removal/dismissal.”
(iv) Earlier in all paras, it was mentioned as ‘Appointing Authorities’. Now it is modified as ‘Recruiting Authorities’. Employment has been modified as service in the midst of the rulings.
(v) New Rules as 5.A: - “The GDS shall be entitled to Payment of Time Related continuity Allowance and other allowances as may be prescribed by the Government on the basis of workload as per the standards of assessment decided by the Department from time to time.
(vi) A new note has been prescribed under Rule 9 – “Penalty of Recovery under Rule 9 (iv) can be enforced fully without any restriction.
In nutshell, the GDS once declared as ‘Extraneous Departmental Employees’ but later after 1963 called as ‘Extra Departmental Employees’ are now being equated as if contingent, casual and contract workers by freezing all their rights as Government employees. GDS Unions must act swiftly instead of mudsling the others as the escape route.
Other news:
· The Dept has sought report from the circle heads on the two issues ie. Grant of road mileage allowance to the staff engaged for cheque clearance and grant of fixed conveyance allowance to Marketing executives as per our subjects in DC (JCM).
· LGO Exam is now postponed to 04.09.2011. The exam will be conducted with Objective type questions. The exam will be conducted by the private company called M/S CMC Limited.
· Group B Exam has been postponed to 29.05.2011. We record our strong objection about reduction of vacancies brought forward since Postmasters cadre is a separate cadre and 6% reservation to general line should be applied for Group B vacancies other than the Postmasters cadre.
· We sought follow up action on MACP anomalies like promotes, recoveries ordered on BCR for PAs promoted from Group D, and Postmen as per the minutes of National MACP anomaly committee meeting minutes dt 15.03.2011.
· Dept. sought opinions from Heads of circles to rename the Franchisee Outlet as Post shopee since the former name is not familiar among the public.
Everyone should know about McKinsey
The Department of Posts has engaged MCKinsey, the multinational Consultancy for recommending the structural reorganization of the Dept of Posts and the McKinsey is issuing dictums to the Circle heads who themselves say helpless and many unwarranted changes are taking place in the post offices, RMS offices. The creation of speed post hub and the proposal for delivery hub for first class mails are the glaring examples of unsuitability of the consultants for our India Post which had its own adverse effect in the department. Let us know short about this concern so that one can understand why we are protesting and launching struggles to save postal department as Government service.
Mckinsey & co was founded in Chicago in 1926 by James O. Mckinsey. No doubt it is only of the leading Management consultancy which suits the countries adopting capitalism, globalization policies. It advocates the method of Privatization, Public Private Partnership, Globalization polices etc. There are many big concerns collapsed after they were engaging it as their consultants. ‘Enron’ was one of the biggest firms and collapsed after engaging it as consultants. The CEO, Enron Sri. Jeff Skilling was sentenced to 24 years in federal prison. ‘Swiss air’ was another which entered bankruptcy after the Mckinsey recommended the ‘The Hunter strategy’. ‘Railtrack’, the British railway company also collapsed after following Mckinsey’s advice to reduce spending on infrastructure and return cash to share holders instead, after which there was a number of fatal accidents. There are cellular phone companies worst hit due its consults.
Mckinsey is a named defendant in Hurricane Katrina litigation for the advice to insure to stop premium leakage by undervaluing claims using the tactics of ‘deny, delay and defend.”
Several civil suits have been filed against home insurance and vehicle insurance companies after the insurers were advised by Mckinsey and allegedly paid the insurance parties significantly less than the actual value of the damage, Mckinsey was cited in a February 2007 CNN article with developing controversial car insurance practices used by State Farm and All state in the mid 1990s to avoid paying claims involving Soft tissue injury. The List will become tail like General Electronic CO, Minnaepolis Public Schools etc. There are many books and articles written by various eminent economist and others about the series of blunders and disasters alleged to have been Mckinsey’s consultant’s fault.
Mckinsey & Postal
If you go through industry insight of Mckinsey, you can find the following which will alone exhibits its recommendations to be made for India Posts on privatization and dismantle the existing Government Service.
“Postal, Express, and Parcel Services”
“In addition to new technologies and systems, globalizations, deregulation, and privatization have been the key drivers of change in the post and express world over the past two decades.
Numerous postal companies have successfully navigated the path of privatization from state monopolies to become listed companies. Others are poised to being this journey. The challenges are huge.
A clear strategy, supported by strong management, detailed planning, and transparent processes, is vital to a corporate transformation. We help our clients identify and pursue growth opportunities in all relevant market segments, both domestically and abroad. We support them as they position themselves to meet regulatory requirements and accompany them on the road to successful privatization. We support them in developing strategies to optimize value-add operations and processes and in implementing performance-management and staff-development systems.”
No Exaggeration. The above were only the experts from the web site of Mckinsey
Mckinsey & U. S. Postal Service
The Mckinsey who was the consulting agency for U. S. Postal Service, has suggested to change a law requiring charges in delivery six days a week to three days and closure of post offices. It suggested trimming delivery by one day, to five days a week which was resisted by law makers in March 2010.
Originally, it proposed that ‘the U. S. Postal Service, facing $ 238 billion budget deficit by 2020, should consider cutting delivery to as few as three days a week. It said that in Jan 2010, it reviewed 162 Post offices, stations and branches for possible closing in current year.
Both the Unions in U. S. Postal Service objected strongly about the elimination of Saturday delivery. William Burns, the President of American Postal workers union referring to the erosion of customer confidence has commented that “it will be the beginning of the demise of the Postal Service. They have already made a lot of cost savings, a lot on the backs on my union, which we understand. But what’s the next step? Do you go to four days a week, three days? Once you establish the financial problems, it is never ending.”
The following is the extracts from one of the Journal ‘Postal Trend watch’ about the recommendations of consultancy agency on US Postal Service.
“The report also proposed reducing postal wages and benefits as a means of cutting costs. Although the Postal Service is required to maintain compensation comparable to the private sector, decades of economic research suggest that unionized Postal Workers are paid about third more than analogous private sector workers. With benefits, the compensation premium for Postal workers can exceed 40 percent.”
From the above, we can very well understand the policies of such consultant companies.
About India Post
“Studies by Kckinsey and others have pointed out that, in the future, India Post will be great vehicle for public-private partnerships. Following models of liberalization undertaken in other countries, some planes look to debundling the owner, operator, and regulator functions of India Post.
India Post’s huge distribution network – the largest in the world – may be its most significant asset in any future partnership with either private-sector concerns or with other government agencies.
The national Postal Policy statement on India Post’s Web site explains that “The new economy and modern markets require [the postal service] to become more financially autonomous and commercially flexible in order to deliver its core functions and other services.” To that end, India Post has continued to look for new revenue-producing projects and the volume of traditional letter and parcel mail shrinks.”
The Mckinsey & Co recommended expanded partnership with Private industry, like retail location and kiosks, Mckinsey commented about the required law changes that “actions in any one area will not be enough to close the gap.” Among other recommendations in the report would be ending doorstep delivery of mail and a shift to clustered mail boxes in residential areas, creating new products and services to increase revenue, and developing hybrid mail products that integrate electronic mail with Postal service Products and services.
From the above, one can very well understand the consultancy service to whom our India Post engaged. The continuous struggles of AP circles and the recent three days strike in Chennai GPO and the chaos conditions proposed in Bangalore GPO are sufficient to know about the consultancy.
Are we going to remain silent and allow things as mute spectator? Or resist the move with our unity and save the postal service as Govt. service. This is the million dollar question before us.
Okay comrades. Be donning the battle dress. Keep our gun powder dry to meet the eventualities.
Let us meet in our next
With Struggle greetings,
(K. V. Sridharan)
General Secretary
Dated - 01.05.2011
