BHARTIYA POST -----MAY 2014 ----- EDITORIAL.

POSTAL ASSISTANT CADRE DESERVES HIGHER PAY SCALE FROM 7TH CENTRAL PAY COMMISSION. 

               Government of India has constituted 7th Central Pay Commission.  All Federations and Unions/Associations will be submitting their memorandums to the Pay Commission, either jointly or separately.  Everybody wants Pay Commission to examine and consider their demands regarding revised pay scales of their category, judiciously and dispassionately, so that justice will be done to each cadre.  National Federation of Postal Employees (NFPE) and all its affiliates will be submitting memorandum on each and every cadre of the Department of Posts and shall try its best to get a favourable recommendation from Pay Commission in respect of Pay Scales of each cadre including Gramin Dak Sevaks.  We are also exploring the possibility of submitting a joint memorandum by the entire staff side of the Department of Posts.  Regarding common demands of entire Central Government Employees staff side, JCM National Council and Confederation of Central Govt. Employees & Workers shall submit memorandum to 7th CPC.  Before that every attempt including agitation will be made to get the terms of reference of the Pay Commission amended, to include the proposal submitted by the Staff Side viz; date of effect from 01-01-2014, DA merger, Interim Relief, inclusion of GDS, inclusion of those appointed after 01-01-2004 in the old statutory pension scheme, Labour representative in Pay Commission, settlement of existing anomalies, Norms of fixing minimum wage, Party in Pension, Cashless-hassle free medicl facilities etc.

               As far as AIPEU Group-C (CHQ) is concerned our main concern and responsibility is to ensure justified and better pay scales and other benefits to the Postal Assistant and allied cadre.  We firmly believe that this time the Postal Assistant cadre and also all its allied cadres and promotional cadres shall get better pay cales from 7th CPC.  In all other Central Government departments each cadre is performing a particular nature of work only.  Income Tax Employees performs the duties related to Income Tax only.  Audit & Accounts employees perform the duties relating to Audit & Accounts only.  Bank Employees perform the duties related to Banking work only.  Insurance Employees perform the work related to Insurance only.  Likewise we can illustrate any number of examples.  In all these cases, it can be seen that the employees of all other departments are specialised to work in their own particular stream of office work only. 

               Contrary to this, there is only one cadre in the entire Central Government departments which performs more than ten types of different specialised duties related to different sections and the name of that cadre is Postal Assistant.  They have to learn and perform Banking work related to Savings Bank and Savings Certificates.  They have to learn and perform Insurance work relating to Postal Life Insurance including acceptance of policy proposal, premium collection to maturity closure and payments etc.  They have to perform the Accounts work in Accounts Branches of each Head Post Offices, they have to do Treasury work in all Post Offices, they have to perform the duties related to Mails, Sorting, delivery of all types of postal articles, they have to run financial services such as Money Orders including Electronic Money transfer, they have attend counter duties relating to booking of Registered, Speed Post, Money orders etc., They have to sell stamps and also application forms.  They have to perform the work of Public Relation Inspectors.  They have to perform the duties of Business Development activities and also as Marketing Executives.  After introduction of high-Technology in all areas of work in Post Offices including Multi-purpose counter machines, Core Banking, PLI Computerisation, Online transactions, Accounts computerisation etc. each and every Postal Assistants is well versed with the computer-related work and some Postal Assistnts are engaged as System Administrators to set right the faults in the system and also to train the staff as and when new technology softwares are introduced.  Government has allotted 5000 crores for 100% computerisation of Post Offices.  Over and above all Postal Assistants are performing the duties of Postmasters which involves supervision of all the above mentioned work. 

               Thus unlike, any employee working in any other departments of Central Govt, or public sector undertakings, Postal Assistant Cadre is an all-in-one-cadre and hence called a “unique” cadre without any comparison. Naturally such a cadre deserves a better deal from the 7th Central Pay commission.

               The same is the case with all the allied cadres and promotional cadres of Postal Assistant such as LSG, HSG-II, HSG-I, Postmaster Grade I, II & III, P.O & RMS Accountants, Treasurers, System Administrators, Business Executives etc. AIPEU Group-C (CHQ) is convening a two days Special National Convention and Workshop on 2014 May 26th &27th at New Delhi, exclusively for discussion, debate and finalisation of 7th CPC memorandum relating to cadres represented by AIPEU Group-C. All circle secretaries and Branch/Divisional secretaries are invited to participate in the special convention and workshop and also to present their valuable suggestions to be included in the memorandum. The draft memorandum prepared in the National Workshop will be published in the websites calling for further suggestions from the members. After that the memorandum will be finalised by the Central Working Committee of AIPEU Group-C to be held in the month of August or earlier in Andhra Pradesh. This is a serious business and a first step for ensuring betterment of our pay scales and service conditions and in this process we want to ensure total participation and involvement of the rank and file leaders and members, in a most democratic and transparent manner.

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