Gramin Dak Sewaks’ strike affects services

Ferozepur, May 22, 2018: The indefinite strike by Gramin Dak Sewaks has started affecting the distribution of mail in the rural areas.

All India Postal Employees Union (Gramin Dak Sewaks) – GDS, have proceeded on an indefinite strike from Tuesday and staged a protest in front of the divisional office of Post Office.

Other employees of the Postal Department are trying to continue the services and they are asking people to collect their urgent mail from post offices but that can only be done if a phone number of the recipient is mentioned on the letter.

Addressing the protesters Baljinder Singh Division Secretary of the Union and Babu Lal, President said the government is not implementing the 7th Pay Commission for Gramin Dak Sewaks whereas the Postmen, Clerks and Class IV employees are getting their revised wages for the last about 29 months as per 7th Pay Commission Report.

They said, the file relating to the implementation of the report in the case of GDSs is lying pending with the Cabinet and the demands of GDSs are being ignored intentionally. The GDSs will continue on indefinite strike till such time their demands are not accepted.  In the meantime, the Union have decided to intensify the agitation.

The Union leader said Dak Sewak is the one who goes door to door and distributes letters. Gramin Dak Sewak also helps in spreading a word about various post office facilities like small saving schemes, but when it comes to respecting and a decent salary, the government forgets both.”

He added that considering it as a social responsibility and humanitarian approach they were still asking people to collect letters concerning jobs or others. He said, “What if a candidate fails to appear for a job interview just because he did not receive the letter? We are doing what best we can to save the people from such harassment, but still, we want the government to take notice of our protest and fulfil our demands.”