Postal strike knocks again

Another postal workers’ strike has brought all services to a standstill and the mail has started piling up in post offices around the country. Telecommunication services, electronic mail and transfers, and courier services provide viable alternatives to many postal services and, indeed, have taken away the high end of the business from the Postal Department. But not many in the country can do without postal services altogether. Whatever the shortcomings, the post office is still hard to beat when it comes to cost-effectiveness and geographic spread. Rural India depends almost entirely on postal services. A lot of people have been inconvenienced and they are going to want to know why. Who is responsible for disrupting services? The three federations of postal employees’ unions say the government has provoked the strike by going back on its word. Ram Vilas Paswan says the strike is unfair. An impartial examination of the facts shows the government is largely at fault this time. The Communications ministry hasdilly-dallied instead of grasping the nettle. What was required was to come to a firm decision on the recommendations of the Justice Talwar committee and communicate it to the postal unions. Paswan himself seems to have paid no attention to warnings of trouble. With personal political goals to pursue who had time to worry about the humble post office.

In May this year a postal strike was averted after an agreement between the unions and government to resolve differences within three months. That gave the government valuable time in which to develop workable compromises with postal unions. However, the time was not put to good use. The main issues at contention are demands for higher wages and other benefits for three lakh extra-departmental agents on whom rural postal services depend. Granted, this is not an easy issue to resolve. These extra departmental agents have a just claim to better emoluments since to them is left the hard grind of servicing India’s villages in all weather conditions. But the government simply does not have the resources. Postal rates have been raised several times over the last decade and the Department of Posts has tried to raise revenues through new avenues and new services. But it does not add up to enough. It is a tough nut to crack. The government is badly strapped for funds and telecom and private sector courier serviceshave taken away high value business. The Department of Posts is left to try and hold down costs in the labour-intensive services it offers. One method has been employing extra-departmental agents on lower terms than full-fledged postal workers.

The crux of the issue is getting the unions to cooperate in raising labour productivity. But as long as postal workers accuse the government of bad faith they will not be amenable to new norm-setting. So the Communications minister needs first to overcome his credibility problem and then set out the terms clearly. Workers should be prepared for some give and take. They should realise strikes are coand lose them public sympathy. There is only one viable option for the post office and unions: They must cooperate in improving services and keeping costs under control.