July 27, 1998

The week-long strike ends with a whimper as the Centre adopts a tough stance.

By Vijay Jung Thapa

A beaming Union Minister for Communications Sushma Swaraj, announcing the end of the nationwide postal strike last week, simply said: "Sometimes the events of the day past can feel like a lifetime away." She was dead right. A day earlier, Swaraj was seething at the strike that had paralysed the largest postal service of the world with six lakh workers. She had taken a tough line right through, termed the strike "politically motivated", worked out a grandiose contingency plan that involved the army postal service and insisted she would do nothing about the union demands until the strike call was withdrawn. The unions too were refusing to back down, egged on by left MPs in Parliament who accused Swaraj of being "anti labour". The writing on the wall suggested a protracted agitation. Suddenly, the tables turned. The belligerent unions withdrew the strike on no other grounds but "implicit faith" that the minister would look after their interests.

Whatever happened? If Swaraj is to be believed it was a magical moment -- "a new beginning where workers begin to trust the administration". But cut through the rhetoric and you'll find that throughout the strike she played her cards right.

First of all she dismissed most of the demands. Her reasoning went like this: of the 10 demands, seven pertained to the anomalies of the Fifth Pay Commission which had been referred to a committee that was looking into such matters. She couldn't take an independent decision on them because they also involved the finance and personnel ministries. Of the other three -- one of them was to bring the grade of a postman on a par with that of a constable in the Central police organisations, a decision accepted by the Cabinet and implemented. The second pertained to the disbursal of a bonus, which, she says, was going to get a favourable response anyway. The only remaining and contentious issue was that of the 3.08 lakh postal agents -- the cogs that run the 1.53 lakh post offices across the country. She made it clear that even that could be negotiated, but the strike should be called off first.

Then, she systematically went about destroying the strike. Her contingency plan, in which she envisaged taking on retired postal department employees on a contractual basis since skilled hands were needed, was followed up seriously. That disturbed the unions. She also managed to woo back the postal superintendents to work -- a 15,000 plus workforce that runs all the head post offices and locks up after the workers have left. Since they were on strike, the head post offices remained locked. Subsequently, even if workers wanted to come back to work they couldn't. "When the superintendents came back we found a dramatic rise in attendance," says R.U.S. Prasad, secretary and director-general of the postal services. Once this happened, even though the pandemonium against Swaraj in Parliament continued, it failed to rouse the unions who were already in a conciliatory mood. The only victory for them in the agreement: no wage cut for the strike period.

But it is still an uneasy truce. According to the unions, the main demand to regularise postal agents still lingers. Says R.L. Bhattacharyya, secretary-general of the National Federation of Postal Employees: "This is what the struggle was all about." The postal agents, he says, are a miserable and exploited lot. The backbone of the rural postal system, these agents are your dakia babus who service villages on rickety bicycles. They get a consolidated allowance with no increments ever, no leave, no gratuity and no pension. On the other hand, unlike government officials who work for eight hours a day, they only work for two to five hours a day, their jobs aren't transferable as they operate from their homes, there is no age bar for becoming an agent and they can work up to 65 years of age. Most important, they are free to pick up another vocation along side the postal one.

To regularise this huge army in a deficit-ridden organisation -- last year's difference between revenue and expenditure alone was Rs 703 crore -- is a thought that makes every money-pinching bureaucrat sit up in shock.

Trouble started on April 30, 1997, when Justice Talwar (a retired Delhi High Court judge) submitted a report stating that postal agents should be given the status of government employees. "We were taken aback since he had gone beyond his brief ... in essence the agents were never meant to be regularised," says Prasad. But the unions quickly lapped up the report, demanding its implementation. The United Front government was looking into the matter and after its fall, the matter was in the BJP Government's hands. "All we got were assurances. The report should have been implemented by November 1997," says Bhattacharyya. But Prasad disagrees. "There was never any agreement," he says. Right through the Government's stand has been that they are considering the proposal, he adds.

Whatever happens, one thing is clear: the Postal Department cannot regularise the employment of 3.08 lakh workers (an increase of 50 per cent). In fact, a consultative study undertaken by the Faculty of Management Studies on the Postal Department for the Fifth Pay Commission concludes: "The department needs a 30 per cent reduction in staff over the next decade to ensure it stops becoming a burden on the national exchequer." It goes on to say: "There is an inherent mechanism in the system to incur losses in the name of public service." It was found that out of the 23 services the Postal Department offered, only five were able to recover costs and make a small profit.

Most experts believe the Postal Department is shrouded in an old-world mindset. Despite competing with private couriers, faxes, telephones and e-mail, it has very little foresight on how to adapt to the changing times. Most of these other technologies bag the top-of-the-market share (read more revenue) leaving the department looking like an inept public utility service with no public sympathy. The consultative study stresses the only way out is to become market conscious and corporatise profitable ventures like speed post and postal insurance. But as of now, these things aren't even being discussed. The main agenda is whether the department should stop the exploitation of three lakh workers or commit financial hara-kiri.

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