FNPO TIRUVANNAMALAI

Views of NAPE,Group C on the recommendations of the VII CPC on Postal Assistant Cadre

The 7^th pay commission have now given its recommendation detailing the modus opearndi as to how the same was arrived at ., The general dictum claimed to have been adapted are not uniformly applied in all cases and only some isolated cases have been benefitted that too on extraneous reasons like court observations and parity among recuritees from the one and the same examination regardless of nature of the work and department to which they are appointed .

The job evaluation has been totally treated as an non entity and the evidence tendered by the stake holders are meted with luke- warm response. The observation of V and VI pay commission have been bluntly cited to ignore the up gradation sought for and thereby failed to contemplate the justification under lying the existing work pattern and schedules in the changed scenario.

While the past pay commissions relied justifiably on fair comparison among the work of homogenous nature , the 7 th pay commission had decided to ward off such approach on the plea that historical parity is longer a moot point under its consideration for the present. Most of the up gradation sought for under this agenda has been turned down by the 7^thcommissions on this reason ( right from pay of Postal Board members to that of Postal asst.) ; Likewise equal pay for equal work is also prime victim of this pay commission ( eg. Artisan in MMS ).

Even this logic and the resultant adjudication is not consistently applied for. The conspicuous exemption to this is the one level up gradation recommended to the inspectorial cadre of postal department without extending the same treatment to the basic feeder cadre on functional justification clubbed with hierarchical placement.

The pay commission had agreed to the pay hike of inspectorial cadre from the present 4200/- to 4600/- with the cascading effect to its further promotional post of ASP and Superintendent by one level above the due replacing level corresponding to the existing grade pay.

The commission had substantiated that the inspector of posts have a share of direct recruits to the tune 33.33% and recruited through ‘combined graduate level exam’ conducted by Staff Selection commission. Without any deliberation of the job evaluation in the respective , the pay commission had simply consented to treat them on par with inspector of CBDT& CBES who are recruited through the same exam and granted the Pay band of 4600/- .

Thus the promotees to IP cadre from among the PAs , (66% ) are destined to have the benefit not because of any job evaluation or functional homogeneity but by an extraneous consideration of direct recruit component of the care is equated with the other recruits of the other departments.

A new kind of approach is therefore realized in the annals of pay commission where in the nature of examination with the common educational qualification has been taken moot point for consideration of pay hike. But the same commission rejected, citing the historical parity cannot be the criterion, for upgradation Postal board members pay on par with the member of CBDT and CBES even though the ingress in the all India service remain one and the same .

While there can not be any objection to this up gradation given to inspectorial cadre, for what so ever reason, its impact should not be confined to the IP cadre alone but to extended to the Postal assistant also because in the past the pay level of IP are determined with reference to the PA cadre and this balance has to kept intact .

The IP cadre were treated equal with the LSG of PA cadre to begin with and in the ascendancy the ASP with that of HSG II prior to V pay commission .The status of PA and its off shoot LSG, HSG II with that of IP and ASP can be elucidated with the following tell -tale tabulation ;

Postal assistant vis-à-vis Inspectors prior to V pay commission


CADRE	IV PAY COMM	V PAY	VI PAY	VII PAY
POSTAL ASST	975-25-1150-1330-1600 ( S—6)	4000-100-6000 (S-7)	5200-20200 GP 2400	LEVEL 4 = GP 2400
LSG	1400-40-1800-50-2300 ( s-8)	4500-125-7000 (S-8)	5200-20200 GP 2800	LEVEL 5 = GP 2800
INSPECTOR	1400-40-1800-50-2300 ( S-8)	5000-150-8000 (S-9)	9300-34800 GP 4200	LEVEL 7 = GP 4600
HSG II	1600-50-2300-60-2660 ( S-9)	5000-150-8000 (S-9)	9300-34800 GP 4200	LEVEL 6 = GP 4200
ASST SUPDT	1600-50-2300-60-2660 ( S-9)	5500-175-9000 (S-10)	9300-34800 GP 4600	LEVEL 8 = GP 4800

The Postal Assistant remained the sole feeder cadre for both LSG and Inspector cadre through promotion, with the same year of service ( i.e 5 year of minimum service), for becoming eligible for promotion up to IV pay commission .

The pay scale of both the LSG and Inspector were, therefore, remained the same i.e S-8 ( 1400-40-1800-50-2300) and the next level of promotion as HSGII and ASP in the respective line were placed in the next immediate higher scale namely S-9 (1600-50-2300-60-2660 ). This parity was maintained from all along even prior to IV pay commission. The operative hierarchy in postal were thus treated in tandem with the inspectorial administrative functions.

But during V pay commission , headed by the Hon.Justice Rathnavel Pandiyan have made thread bare analysis and paid heed to the representation from various quarter about the job nature of the postal assistants and postman . The meticulous job evaluation of the basic cadre of the department have convinced the V pay commission to infer that PAs are unique in the job profile and are performing multifarious functions like mail , banking , insurance etc and therefore have placed them one scale higher at S-7 (4000-100-6000) to the due S-6 (3200-85-4900 ) the replacement scale for the existing scale 975-25-1150-1330-1600 ( S—6).

At the same stretch and nuance of justice , the V pay commission had accorded the same one scale jump for the inspectorial cadres and placed them in S-9 (5000-150-8000) instead of the due S-8 4500-125-7000( S-8) the replacement scale for the existing scale (1400-40-1800-50-2300) S 8

It is needless to say that the pay hike to IP s have become necessary and rendered possible for the simple fact that the V pay commission felt that the one level jump given to PA cadre should be allowed to the IP cadre also and thereby enabling the gap in remuneration to represent establish the hierarchical identity and distinction .

The replacement scale of S-8 meant for the LSG/ IP cadres was allowed as such for LSG alone and confined to these cadre, thereby the IP cadre ( admin) is distinguished from that of the PA cadre (operative line )

It is this distinction borne out of the functional compulsion and level of execution that made the VI pay commission to contemplated and concur the same extent of gap with one level jump and accordingly placed them (.PA ;2400, LSG ; 2800 ,IP 4200).

The up gradation given to PA and IP cadre (with inert logic and justification) has been broken once and for all with no valid and tenable reason by the VII pay commission.

The functional justification of Postal Assistant with multifarious work of complex nature that warranted a a special scale in v pay commission and its fall out on the pay of IP cadre with the extent of hike have been shattered in the VII pay commission .The gap is widened with no intra departmental justification to do so,

It is further, an irony that the job evaluation of PA cadre for present day work demand is entirely different from that of those that existed at the inception of V Pay and VI pay commission has been conveniently forgotten and the time tested concepts have been ignored.

Instead the component of the eligibility of direct recruitment in a cadre and their selection process through the one and the same recruiting agency have been taken into consideration as valid point to upgrade the pay. The Inspector have been given another gradation to get equated with the inspectors of the other departments for the one only reason that they have been recruited through the same combined graduation level examination of staff selection commission .

Thus an new concept of taking agency and nomenclature of recruiting process has been adapted by the VII pay commission (there by deviating from concepts of inclusiveness, comprehensibility and the parameters of job evaluation , fair comparison, equanimity among the cadres of basic level.)

The intrusion of the new concept may go a long way to end in a clamor for all to get them equated with those drawing higher pay with a similar the minimum educational qualification as the deciding factor. Even the IAS/IPS officers are recruited among the candidates with minimum qualification of graduation and through a recruiting agency of UPSC, the next level entity SSC.

The33.3 % of direct recruits of IP cadre have become the reason for the pay hike for rest of 66% of IPs promoted from PA cadre—the feeder cadre. The cascading effect of elevating the pay level of the ASP, SP in the line of ascendancy is also considered by the Pay commission.

No sort of things in the intra departmental functional justification, as decided in the previous pay commission, is considered for pay hike to IP cadre. It is only the direct recruits who have decided the pay hike

ON Other Hand

The job evaluation submitted in respect of PA cadre to the VII pay commission by the Federation are self-speaking and in volumes . The present state of affairs in the Post offices And RMs demands only candidates of graduate level aptitude and skill. In reality also almost the new recruits in the recent years are not only graduates but are also ,considerably, the professional degree holders like BE / B.tech etc. Therefore the need for enhancement of educational qualification and equating them with their counter parts in recruiting ting process is requested to be considered

Against the back drop of the seventh pay commission’s intention to cite recommendations of V and VI pay commission to discard the request of various demands before them , the same intention may kindly be invoked to adhere to the spirit of V and VI pay commission deliberations on PA vis-a vis IP

Accordingly the pay of the PA should be raised to level 5 ( with GP 2800) and there by remain just two levels below the IP level of pay and further giving the intermediary level 6 ( GP 4200) to LSG and level 7 (GP 4600) to HSG II in order to keep the extant of gap as ever before that was inherited for the past 20 years ,the tenure of V and VI pay commission dispensation .

It is a well known fact that the nature of work of a Post Office is unique and incomparable with other Government Departments. It has no constant working hours. A major portion of employees is working in split hours. Unlike other Government Departments, Postal employees are working for six days in a week. The services provided by Postal staff are multifarious. They are trained to work on about 50 kinds of softwares. The number of branches in a Post Office is an open evidence. In most of the Government Offices, preparation and submission of returns is a monthly process. Whereas in PO it is a daily mandatory work in every branch. Considering its uniqueness, the V-CPC differentiated us by placing Postal Assistants at Rs.4000/- scale and Postman at Rs.3200/- on par with LDC. But VII-CPC does not seem to have looked into the just demands of Postal Unions and totally ignored us. It has simply put all fishes into one pot.

In addition it has abolished 52 allowances heartlessly. The reason attributed for the abolition is still wounding. Allowances are tools of management to encourage employees to put forth their extra efforts & calibre which will definitely improve the productivity. Abolition of all the allowances in the name of ‘uniformity’ will make them too indifferent. Denial of Handicapped allowance is the most inhuman recommendation which nobody can tolerate and it is against the policy of the Government. Similarly, when Treasury allowance is sanctioned on the basis of the statistics of total amount of cash handled, abolishing it by citing the reason that handling of cash has fallen down due to electronic transfers is quite meaningless. Similarly when Chennai, a State capital has become the worst victim of floods, abolition of Flood advance is highly merciless. And denial of Scooter advance/motor car advance, Festival advance etc. will deprive Government servants of their chance to improve their standard of living and push them to private financiers to evade complex formalities in PSU Bank. This will rob off a sizeable portion of their income towards high rated interest. Being the largest and model Employer, the Govt. holds the responsibility of protecting the interest and welfare of its employees. The Commission should have analysed the genuine reasons why these allowances and advances were introduced earlier. I request you to use your good offices to see that all allowances and advances are continued and increased proportionately.

Particularly, the Commission has humiliated the operative staff to the extent possible. Once upon a time, during British reign the status of a Head Postmaster was comparable to the highest Revenue authorities of a District. I request you to recall the position of HSG-I cadre and Inspector-Posts cadre during pre IV-CPC period. As you are aware HSG-I isthe highest operative cadre and IP is the lowest administrative cadre. By placing both at Rs.4600/- grade pay level, the VII-CPC has equated the lowest administrative cadre with the highest operative cadre. It shows the colonial attitude of the Commission that even a Head Postmaster is not above an Inspector at entry level. It is a great insult and injustice to operative side Supervisors.

The Commission has merely justified that IP cadre has to be placed on par with Inspectors recruited for CBDT. But it has failed to consider that the duties performed daily and responsibilities held by Selection Grade Supervisors and Postmasters. Though he is in charge of Operative office, his work nature is quasi administrative. In a PO, the Postmaster has to man, supervise and administer even about 70-80 employees. He is a Sub Appointing Authority. In the changed scenario of CBS, his role and responsibilities are very vital in the Department. He has to manage and solve many network and software related issues at his level. Besides he handles crores of Rupees of cash every day. All the new products of the Department are marketed through him and all new Schemes are ultimately implemented through him. He is meeting the customers face to face every day which is the most important work of the Department. Post Forum meeting is conducted by the Head Postmaster himself. The Head Postmaster is supervising the work of about 10 LSG/HSG-II Supervisors including APM (A/cs). He is provided with independent Field Officers like PRI (P) and Marketing Executives.

It is imperative to mention that on migration to McCamish , the work of Postal Life Insurance has been drastically decentralised to HPOs and the Head Postmaster is delegated with financial powers to sanction huge amounts of claim. The works of perusal & acceptance of proposals, sanctioning of loans & claims etc. are highly responsible and indeed an additional work attached to the Postmaster.

Further the Commission has found no justification to recommend separate pay scale to DSMs and MEs. It is surprising that the Commission has justified an open exploitation in the name of ‘willingness’. It is a wrong precedence which will lead to serious consequences if applied mutatis mutandis in all cadres. This will collapse the seniority system followed in transfers and postings and will cause unfair practices. I suggest that the posts of DSM and ME may be placed at Rs.4600/- level and filled through a LDCE.

The VII-CPC has reintroduced compulsory retirement and EB crossing. It has ruled that failure to get required benchmark for promotion within the first 20 years of service will result in stoppage of increment. And such employees who have out lived their ability, their services need not be continued and the continuance of such persons in the service should be discouraged. This is a theorem of corporate sector who use their employees like a chewing gum. It is like pushing parents into orphanage at their dotage when they are in need of help and support. And EB crossing is one of the lethal weapons applied against employees. The Commission has failed to find out the reason for lifting Efficiency Bar earlier by the Govt.

VIIth CPC hasn’t addressed the grave anomalies brought to its notice through this union which was illustrated below

¨ Postal Assistant is drawing the following


Postal Assistant Service	Grade Pay	Pay Band
Initial entry	2400	5200-20200 – Pay Band I
10 yrs of service	2800	5200-20200 – Pay Band I
20 yrs of service	4200	9300-34800 – Pay Band II
30 yrs of service	4600	9300-34800 – Pay Band II

¨ Prior to implementation of the 6th CPC, BCR Postman hither to in 5th CPC its equivalent in 6th CPC 30 yrs of Service or MACP III Postman pay scale is the starting scale of the Postal Assistant. Hence there is no anomaly in the pay and so the postman could show interest for promotion to Postal Assistant.

¨ But with the grade pay structure of the 6th CPC this parity was lost . As a matter of policy of the UPA government it has upgraded the Postman pay scale, this up-gradation has led to the loss of parity between the Postman and Postal Assistant. Department of Posts hasn’t taken any steps to redress this anomaly till date.

¨ 6th CPC has clearly mentioned that Grade Pay reflects the cadre in a scale. But after implementation of 6th CPC the scenario is different. Due to overlapping of the grade pays, even though a Postman gets promoted to PA his grade pay will be from 2400 even though in Postman cadre he may be drawing 2800 as Grade pay.

¨ Another example is the Grade Pay of LSG supervisor i.e APM(Mails)/APM(SB)/APM(Accounts) is 2800, who were supervisory staff to Postman staff. Where as a Postman after 30 years of Service most Postman will be drawing a grade pay of Rs.4200/- which is a glaring indication of supervisor drawing less pay than his subordinate postman.

¨ An HSG-II Postmaster who is the overall head of a Post Office will be drawing Rs.4200/- as Grade Pay and a postman working under him draw with 30 years of service also draws the same Rs.4200/- as Grade pay.

Concluding Remarks:

Why a Postal Asst needs a better pay package is illustrated in the earlier pages, but a birds view is as under.

VIIth CPC has paid a blind eye to the working hours being meted out by a Postal Assistant. A Postal Assistant works for 2280 Hours in a year where as an administrative Central Govt Employee works for only 1980.5 hours in year. The net difference is 299.5 Hours i.e approx 300(37 days) extra hours is being performed by Postal assistant without any extra pay for the work performed but all Pay commissions except Vth CPC have just equated their pays basing on educational qualifications.

The Department of Posts is being used as financial distribution agency for all the central govt welfare schemes. Even the present Government is very pro-active for this idea and a proof for this is department is implementing Core Banking solutions, Payment Bank, and actively considering for Post Bank of India. For handling the forth coming multifarious works along with the present works being done by a Postal Assistant requires higher caliber and a change in his minimum educational qualifications from 10+2 to Bachelors Degree is inevitable. In the coming years many employees will be retiring and a new generation of employees needs to be recruited. It is the right time for Government to consider this aspect in view of bright future and better prospects for the department.

After the implementation of the VIth CPC recommendatios under MACP scheme many of the promotees from Group-D and Postman cadre have lost their due benefits by getting promoted to Postal Assistant through Departmental examination. He would have drawn benefits of GP 4200 if he has continued in the same Postman cadre. Examples are cited above.

This union has brought to the notice of the VIIth cpc Chairman the hardships, anamolies and nature of work a Postal Assistant is doing and hoped CPC will justify their hardwork. Till now the employees are peforming more than their basic qualifications/yard sticks, but these recommendations may derange from this work culture which may have severe repercussions in future.

Thus the Postal Assistant does deserve the Pay Band of PB-2 – 9300 – 34800 with Grade Pay of 4200/-

All through out the 6^th CPC period this union has urged the government for enhancing the OTA but none were answered. As 7^th CPC is favourable where ever it is justified, we hope the department even now to respond on par with other department like Railways .

Thus, the Postal Assistant Cadre is degraded further creating a recurring anomaly to the retirees as a retired postal assistant draws less pension than a retired postman. Further on perusal of 7^th pay commission in fixation of pension to a postal assistant who retires on 31-12-2015 gets more pension (pre revised pay) than the postal assistant who retires after 01-01-2016, actually draws 15% less pension after revision of pay. While perusing the table given by 7^th pay commission it is noticed that the annual increment which is stated to be 3% is not exactly 3% but it is between 2.7% to 2.8% this anomaly arose due to rounding off fraction of amount to the nearest 100 for example 18000 x 3%=18540 but the next stage is 18500 therefore the anomaly should be rectified by rounding off to the next 100 in the above case to 18600.

ALL ALLOWANCES RATIONALISED OR ABOLISHED BY THE 7^TH PAY COMMISSION SHOULD BE RESTORED

(D.KISHANRAO)

GENERAL SECRETARY,

NAPE GROUPC

FNPO TIRUVANNAMALAI

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