Supporting the country-wide protests against privatisation and corporatisation of postal services, postal employees of the Bhubaneswar Division would go on an indefinite strike from May 6. It was decided at a meeting held here on Sunday by the Central Joint Council of Action comprising National Federation of Postal Employees, Federation of National Postal Organisations, All India Postal Employees Union, Gramin Dak Sewak and National Union of Gramin Dak Sewak (GDS).
The meeting was inaugurated by CITU vice-president Janardan Pati. later, the employees came in a procession starting from Satya Nagar Big Bazaar Square to Master Canteen and staged road blockade there to draw public attention to the issues. leaders of the respective unions decided that they would hit the street protesting the corporatisation in postal services across the country. “We had given a 26-point charter of demands to the Centre to solve our problems, but nothing has happened till date,” said divisional president of the AIPEU, Group-C Pramod Patnaik.
Divisional secretary of the AIPEU, Group-C Bruhaspati Samal informed that around 25,000 postal employees of 8,000 post offices of the State would take part in the indefinite strike. The demands include inclusion of GDS under the purview of the 7th Pay Commission and grant of Civil Servant status, merger of 100 per cent development allowance (DA) with pay with effective from January 1, 2014, scrapping up of the New Pension Scheme and removal of the five-per cent cap on compassionate appointment.