The indefinite strike commenced by rural postal workers here on Tuesday has badly hit delivery of posts and money orders in rural areas.
The protesting rural postal workers said the government should regularise their services as full-time employees of Department of Posts and extend all benefits.
A committee headed by a judge should be formed to recommend pay scale and nature of work when rural postal workers were recognised as the employees of Department of Posts.
The ongoing move to convert the Department of Posts into a corporate firm should be given up, the protestors said.
Madurai
Members of the All India Gramin Dak Sevak Union of Madurai division on Tuesday began an indefinite strike pressing for regularising their services and provision of all benefits to them on par with the regular employees of the Postal Department.
The strike was successful on day one with more than 80 per cent of the 600 GDS taking part in the agitation, the regional secretary of the union, M. Baskaran, said.
“Only those GDS who had joined the services in the last one year were threatened by the officials against taking part in the agitation,” he said.
Stating that the salary for the newly-recruited GDS was Rs. 4,500, he said those who had put in over 25 years of service were getting only around Rs. 8,000.
“Though the Department wanted us to work only for four hours, it does not work that way. On most of the days we have to work for 8 hours,” he claimed.
As a result of the agitation, all the delivery of letters and money orders were affected in rural areas, the agitators claimed. The union district president, M. Mathiazhagan, presided over a demonstration here.
