DHL draws flak from couriers for denial of right

DHL Employees Union members staging a protest demonstration against the management at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Sunday. Photo: R. V .Moorthy

Couriers of DHL Express India (Pvt.) Ltd., the Indian arm of German mail and logistics company Deutsche Post DHL, in several centres have alleged that the company is preventing them from joining the DHL Employees Union. Protesting DHL staff in Delhi said the company had unfairly categorised couriers working in its Delhi, Kolkata, Pune and Jaipur offices under “Hay” grade, as management staff category instead of couriers, to deny their rights as workmen under the Industrial Disputes Act.

Anil Khot, Business HR Manager, DHL Express (India) Pvt. Ltd., in a letter to DHL Employees Union in July 2013, a copy of which is with The Hindu, has written that “Hay grade employees on whose behalf union has submitted charter of demands in our opinion are not “workmen” under the Industrial Disputes Act.”

“The “H grade” employees are predominantly performing managerial and /or administrative jobs and they belong to the non-unionised cadre, and their service condition is independently laid down by the management from time to time,” notes the letter.

“The company is denying our constitutional right to form a trade union by falsely categorising even couriers as managerial staff.

They show couriers as “Hay grade” managerial staff in some centres while those doing the same work of picking and delivering mail as couriers are under “S” grade in the Mumbai office.

They formed the union in 1999 but they say we cannot form a union,” said Narendra Mishra, who has worked as a courier at the company since 1997. Over 100 workers, accompanied by their family members and labour activists from New Trade Union Initiative, had organised a protest meet at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on Sunday. A number of his colleagues had been unfairly transferred and suspended since last year, he added.

Mr. Khot did not respond to attempts made by this correspondent for eliciting his comment.

“How can couriers be categorised as management and not workmen? The management is trying to discourage new workers from joining the union, and denying our right to collective bargaining and right to association,” said Aabess Khan, General Secretary, DHL Mumbai Union, who had travelled from Mumbai to participate in the protest meeting.