CLICK TO VISIT LATEST POSTS

Friday, October 31, 2014

EDITORIAL POSTAL CRUSADER NOVEMBER-2014

EDITORIAL POSTAL CRUSADER NOVEMBER-2014
JCM STAFF SIDE UNITY SHOULD BE FOR STRUGGLE
            History of Central Government Employees reveals that Government has taken undue advantage to deny the justified demands of the Central Government Employees, whenever there was disunity among the JCM staff side organizations. On the contrary, whenever staffside stood solidly united the Government was compelled to concede the legitimate rights of the employees to a great extent.
            After Fifth  Pay Commission recommendations, the JCM National council staffside submitted to Government a common charter of demands for modifications of the recommendations of the Pay Commission, which included upward revision of fitment formula and removal of certain glaring anomalies. When Government refused to concede it , notice for indefinite strike was given and finally the Government had to appoint a high-power Group of Ministers Committee under the chairmanship of then Home Minister Shri.Indrajith Gupta and negotiated with the staffside.  In the negotiations also the staffside took a united uncompromising stand which ultimately resulted in Government accepting the demand for 40% fitment formula and some other important demands.
            Unfortunately, when the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations were  submitted to Government, the JCM National Council Staffside miserably failed to take such a firm and united stand and no serious agitational programme was conducted demanding modification of the retrograde recommendations. Instead the dominant leadership of JCM staffside took a compromising stand and depended only on negotiated settlement , without mobilizing the entire rank and file membership behind the demands. Ultimately Government took advantage of this weakness of the leadership and unilaterally announced the implementation of the 6th CPC recommendations, without conceding majority of the genuine demands raised by the staffside during negotiations. Faulty formula adopted for calculation of  Need Based Minimum Wage , glaring disparity in fitment and fixation formula between lower level officials  and Group- A officers, unscientific pay band and grade pay system and serious anomalies arising out of it , MACP anomalies   everything remained as such  which could not be settled even after seven years.
            Again , when the Government announced the New Contributory Pension Scheme with effect from 01.01.2004 for the new entrants in Central Government Services without any consultation with the JCM National Council Staffside, the dominant  leadership of the JCM staffside did not protest and kept silent. This has emboldened the Government to go ahead with the implementation of the neo-liberal pension reforms. Had the entire JCM Staffside including Railways, Defence and Confederation taken a united stand to oppose the New Pension Scheme and given call for serious agitational programmes including indefinite strike the Government would not have dared to implement the NPS. Of course , Confederation of Central Government Employees and workers opposed the New Pension Scheme and has gone to the extent of conducting one day strike. JCM leadership raised the demand for roll-back of NPS after a very long time and by that time Government succeeded in fully implementing the scheme.
Confederation of Central Government Employees and workers has always stood for unity among the Central Government Employees .When confederation submitted a 15 point charter  to the UPA Government in 2011 demanding appointment of 7 th CPC , 5 year wage revision , Merger of 50% DA, Inclusion of Gramin Dak Sevaks under 7th CPC etc, the  other major organizations in the JCM were not ready to raise the demands in 2011. Finally confederation was forced to go it alone and conducted series of agitational programmes including Parliament March, one day strike and two days strike. Of course, the lonely struggle conducted by confederation represented the mood of the entirety of Central Government Employees and ultimately the Government was compelled to announce constitution of 7th CPC in the month of September 2013.
           
                        Now NDA Government which came to power after General   Election has rejected all the main demands of the Central Government Employees which includes merger of DA , Interim Relief , Date of  effect  from 01.01.2014 , inclusion of GDS in the terms of reference of 7th CPC ,scrapping of New Pension Scheme etc. Further Government declared 100% FDI  in Railways and Defence. Public Private Partnership in Railways was also announced in Railway budget. More than five lakhs posts are lying vacant in various Departments out of which about 2.5 lakhs vacancies are in Railways alone. The UPA Government has unilaterally announced the terms of reference of the 7th CPC rejecting the draft proposal submitted by JCM staffside.  The memorandum submitted by JCM staffside to the NDA Government for grant of merger of DA and Interim Relief also was totally neglected. The JCM Staffside leadership could not do anything and the employees are suffering. In fact the JCM staffside has become a laughing stock among the employees and its credibility in the eyes of the employees has eroded like anything.
                        It is in this background , eventhough belatedly , the JCM National Council Staffside has decided to organize a National Convention at New Delhi on 11th December 2014 , to discuss and finalise its strategy to combat the above humiliation meted out by the Government . Better late than never. The decision is well received by the entire Central Government Employees and they are eagerly waiting for the outcome of the convention.
                        NFPE  firmly believes that if the present unity among the JCM staffside organizations is not channelized for building up united struggle including indefinite strike of entire Central Government Employees the National Convention will become a futile exercise and an eye-wash to cool down the growing discontentment among the employees. This shall not happen. We firmly believe in the slogan raised by our late legendary leader Com K.G.Bose- i.e  “UNITY FOR STRUGGLE AND STRUGGLE FOR UNITY”. Such a stand alone can restore the lost glory of the fighting potential of the Central Government Employees and also shall regain the lost faith of employees in the JCM staffside leadership. We cannot be a party to any compromise on the genuine and justified demands of the workers. Let us hope that the JCM staffside leadership shall rise up to the occasion.

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Federal Secretariat Meeting of NFPE



           NATIONAL FEDERATION OF POSTAL EMPLOYEES
1st Floor North Avenue Post Office Building, New Delhi-110 001

PF-o1(C)/NFPE                                                                     Dated: 30th October, 2014


NOTICE

It is hereby notified that the Federal Secretariat Meeting of NFPE will be held at NFPE Office, 1st Floor North Avenue Post Office Building, New Delhi-110 001 on 10th November, 2014 at 3PM.

All General Secretaries of NFPE & NFPE Office Bearers available at HQ are requested to attend the meeting in time:

The following will be the agenda:

AGENDA
1.    Postal JCA Charter of demands – Agitational programme- Review and further course of action.
2.    Dec-4th -2014- PJCA –Parliament March –Review,
3.    Any other item with the permission of Chair,

                                                                                                 
                                                                                            (R.N. Parashar)
                                                                               Secretary General

Copy to: All General Secretaries of NFPE Unions and available NFPE Office Bearers at New Delhi.  

NFPE diamond jubilee


Thursday, October 23, 2014

JCM STAFF SIDE NATIONAL CONVENTION

JCM STAFF SIDE NATIONAL CONVENTION ON 11TH DECEMBER 2014 AT NEW DELHI. WILL DECLARE JOINT PROGRAME OF ACTION ON CENTRAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES COMMON DEMANDS

JCM Staff Side leadership has decided to organize a National Convention of all Central Government Employees (Railway, Defence & Confederation) on 11th December 2014 at New Delhi from 12 PM to 4 PM. Convention will adopt a joint resolution on the common demands of the Central Government Employees viz; Merger of DA, Interim Relief, Inlcusion of GDS under 7th CPC, Scrap New Pension Scheme etc and will declare joint programs of action. Further details regarding number of delegates to be participated from each affiliated Organisation & State C-O-Cs of Confederation will be published shortly.

CONFEDERATION - news

CONFEDERATION ALL INDIA TRADE UNION WORKSHOP AT BANGALORE ON 5TH & 6TH JANUARY 2015

Two days All India Trade Union Workshop of Confederation of Central Government Employees & Workers will be held at Bangalore on 5th & 6th January 2015. COC Karnataka will host the workshop. Total number of delegates will be 200. Affiliated organization-wise delegate quota will be published shortly. Delegate Fee is fixed as Rs. 600 (Rupees Six hundred only) per delegate. Meeting of the COC held at Bangalore was attended by Confederation CHQ leaders Coms: S. K. Vyas, K. K. N. Kutty, M. Krishnan, M. S. Raja, Vrigu Bhattacharjee, Giriraj Singh, R. N. Parashar, P. Suresh, R. Seethalakshmi etc. Detailed circular will follow.

diamond jubilee and task ahead - editorial

diamond jubilee and task ahead
                   One year long nationwide Diamond Jubilee Celebrations of National Federation of Postal Employees (NFPE) which commenced on 24th November 2013 at New Delhi is coming to a grand finish on 23rd and 24th November 2014 at Dwarka (Gujarat).  NFPE has already celebrated the Golden Jubilee of Postal Trade Union movement in the year 2004 at Thiruvananthapuram, marking the 100th year of establishing “Postal Club” at Kolkata by Late Com. Babu Tarapada Mukherjee, the founder father of Postal Trade Union, which was later on converted by him as All India Postal and RMS Employees Union.  NFPTE was formed on 24th November 1954, in a massive convention held at Vinay Nagar, New Delhi.  After bi-furcation of Postal and Telecom, the name of Postal Federation is changed as NFPE.
                   When we celebrate 60th year of our glorious organisation, we should pledge to re-dedicate ourselves not only for fighting for the cause of five lakhs Postal and RMS employees including Gramin Dak Sevaks but also for the cause of entire Central Government employees and the suffering masses of our country and the world.
                   We should inherit the legacy of our great leaders and follow their footsteps - their dedication, commitment, sacrifice, knowledge, militancy, courage, honesty, concern and respect for the fellow workers and seniors, giving topmost priority to individual grievances, democratic and transparent functioning, oraganisational discipline, building up trade union consciousness, social consciousness, political consciousness and above all class consciousness.
                   We have been fighting against the neo-liberal policies of the Government, right from its beginning from 1991 onwards.  We conducted many heroic struggle against downsizing, outsourcing, contractorisation and privatization.  We succeeded in compelling the Government to lift the ban on recruitment and filling up of all vacancies, we succeeded in preventing the Government from implementing its order for closure of 9797 Post offices, we succeeded in halting Mckinsey recommendations and Mail Network Optimisation Project (MNOP) for closure of about 300 RMS Offices.  We could successfully prevent the Government from amending the Indian Post Office Act and giving license to multi-national courier services.   Our fight for emancipation of three lakhs Gramin Dak Sevaks has not yet reached its finality.  We have to complete our unfinished task.
                   Seventh Central Pay Commission has commenced its work.  Our demands for DA merger, Interim Relief, Inclusion of GDS under 7th CPC, date of effect from 01-01-2014, scrapping of new pension scheme, parity in pension etc. are still pending.  Government, whether it is UPA or NDA, is totally negative to our genuine demands.  Our struggle under the banner of NFPE and Confederation of Central Government Employees and Workers is to be further intensified.
                   Eventhough we have submitted detailed memorandum to 7th CPC for better wages and service conditions, neither the 7th CPC nor the Government shall concede our demands, unless we mobilize the workers at all levels in a serious and determined manner and create sanction behind our demands.
            Thus the message of Diamond Jubilee of NFPE is loud and clear.  We have to continue our struggle against the anti-labour, anti-people policies of the Government, we has to fight against the neo-liberal reforms in the Central Government employees sector, we have to conduct bigger form of trade union action including indefinite strike for realization of the demands of the Central Government employees and Postal employees including Gramin Dak Sevaks.  We shall not rest till the dreams of our founder leaders are fulfilled.

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Participation of Women in Central Government Services


An interesting data collected from the reply of Minister Dr.Jitendra Singh in Parliament that the percentage of women in the Central Government services and their age limit for entry.

Details of percentage of women in Government service over the years, as per the Census of Central Government Employees, 2012, released by Directorate General Employment & Training are given below in the table.

In order to encourage the women to join Government service, they are provided some special facilities as under:
(i) maternity leave (ii) child care leave (iii) child adoption leave (iv) special allowance to women with disability (v) provision of crèche facility (vi) posting of husband and wife at the same station (vii) special priority in allotment of residential accommodation (viii) provision for protection of women from acts of sexual harassment (ix) age relaxation for appointment to widows, divorced woman and woman judicially separated from their husbands and who are not remarried (x) special dispensation for woman officers of All India Services of North East cadre (xi) change of Cadre in case of marriage of All India Service Officer and (xii) exemption from payment of fee for examinations conducted by the Union Public Service Commission and Staff Selection Commission.

Also, as per the recommendations of the 62nd Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee, publicity to encourage women to prefer/ join Government.

There is a provision for age relaxation for appointment in Government service for Widows, divorced Women and Women judicially separated from husbands and not re- married, upto 35 years for posts of Group C filled through Staff Selection Commission/ Employment Exchange (upto 40 years for members of Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes).

WOMEN IN GOVERNMENT OVER THE YEARS

Year
Total No. of employees
(in lakhs)
No. of Women employees
(in lakhs)
Percentage
1991
38.13
2.88
7.58
2001
38.76
2.91
7.53
2009
30.99
3.11
10.04

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

MASS SITTING AT ALL STATE CAPITAL

CONFEDERATION CALL FOR MASS SITTING AT ALL STATE CAPITALA ON 18.11.2014

CONFEDERATION DECLARES NEXT PROGRAMME OF ACTION
TWO HOURS MASS SQUATTING OF NOT LESS THAN 3000 EMPLOYEES AT EACH STATE CAPITAL AT A CENTRALLY LOCATED IMPORTANT PLACE ON 18.11.2014
CCGEW has   decided to further intensify the campaign and agitational programmes against the Government’s attitude towards the legitimate demands of the Central Government Employees. It is decided to organize two hours MASS SQUATING of not less than 3000 Central Government employees on 18th November 2014, at a centrally located important place at all the state capitals. Effort should be made to ensure maximum participation of Lady Comrades in the programme. Next phase of action will be decided after successful implementation of the above programme.