Postal staff call off strike after cabinet nod for pay revision

TRICHY: Gramin Dak Sevaks (GDS) – rural postal employees called off their indefinite strike following the cabinet approval to the revision in their wage structure and allowance.

As part of the nationwide strike that commenced on May 22, as many as 5,000 GDS of Trichy postal region comprising 12 districts went on a strike for the past 16 days to demand the implementation of the recommendations by Kamalesh Chandra committee.

The approval to their demands by the central government came on Wednesday evening following the clearance given by the cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

“All the GDS in Trichy postal region will report for duty tomorrow (Thursday) as the cabinet approval gives us a new hope,” said divisional secretary of national federation of postal employees S Govindarajan on Wednesday. The announcement came when a section of employees staged a demonstration in Mannachanallur in Trichy on Wednesday.

“The revision in the wage structure would entail an estimated expenditure of Rs 1,257.75 crore (non-recurring expenditure - Rs 860.95 crore and recurring expenditure of Rs 396.80 crore) during 2018-19. Around 3.07 lakh gramin dak sevaks will be benefited by this wage revision,” a statement from the Press Information Bureau (PIB) said.

The delivery of letters through India Post came to an abrupt halt in rural areas of Trichy leading to the backlog of lacks of letters, parcels from both the individuals, private organisations and the government departments due to the strike.

“We managed to deliver the posts in the city areas in Trichy by assigning additional duties to the regular postmen and women.