N F P E appealed all affiliated unions / associations to start preparations for the Indefinite Strike commencing 5th July, 2011 without waiting for the last minute:

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF POSTAL EMPLOYEE

1st Floor, North Avenue Post Office, New Delhi – 110001

 No. PF-01(e)5/2011                                                    Dated : 06th April,2011

 To

            All General Secretaries/Circle Secretaries/

            Divisional Secretaries of affiliated Unions / Associations, NFPE

 Dear Comrades,

 1.      Hope that all of you might have received the copy of the Central JCA Circular dated 31.03.2011 regarding the Indefinite All India Strike from 5^th July 2011. Preperations for the strike should start right from now onwards. Don't wait up to the last minute. Conduct the following campaign and agitational programmes in a most effective manner.

(i)     Submission of memorandum containing Charter of demands on 20.04.2011. Copy of the memorandum will be exhibited in the website before 18.04.2011. Download the memorandum and charter of Demands (already exhibited in the website) and submit it to the CPMGs/Regional PMGs/Divisional heads. Mass demonstrations should be organized in front of all Chief PMGs, Regional PMGs and Divisional offices on 20.04.2011.

 2.      Circle level and Divisional level JCA should meet immediately and chalk out joint programmes. NFPE should take initiative for convening the JCA meeting.

 3.      Maximum participation of employees should be ensured in the Mass Dharna on 25.05.2011. Organize dharna programme in front of all Chief PMG/PMG/Divisional offices in an effective manner.

 4.      In the month of June, Circle level joint convention of all Circle Secretaries, Divisional Secretaries and Circle Union office bearers of NFPE, FNPO and GDS Unions shall be organized at the Circle Head quarters. Central JCA leaders of NFPE, FNPO & GDs Unions shall address the joint conventions. The dates of the joint conventions at Circle level will be finalized by the Central JCA meeting on 20.04.2011.

 5.      Next meeting of the Central JCA will be held at New Delhi on 20.04.2011 after submission of joint memorandum and charter of demands to Secretary, Department of Posts.

 6.      Divisional/Branch level General body meetings, conventions, group meetings, office to office campaign, publishing notices and posters etc may be conducted to educate the employees on the charter of demands.

 7.      The managing bodies of all Unions/Associations at Circle/Divisional level may be held and planned action programme may be charted in a most democratic manner.

OBSERVE CONFEDERATION DEMANDS DAY ON 20.04.2011

            The first phase of the campaign and agitational programmes decided by the National Council of Confederation of Central Government Employees and workers will be organized throughout the country on 20.04.2011. Demonstration are to be conducted in front of all offices and the charter of demands may be explained to the employees. A memorandum enlisting the charter of demands will be submitted to the Government (Cabinet Secretary) by Confederation National Leadership on 20.04.2011. Copy of the Memorandum will be submitted to all Head of the Departments also on the same day. All General Secretaries/Circle/Divisional Secretaries are requested to make the Demands day a grand success. Confederation Charter of demands is reproduced below.

 Charter of Demands

1.      Stop price rise, Strengthen Public Distribution system

2.      Stop downsizing, outsourcing, contractorisation, corporatisation and privatization of Government functions

3.      Fill up all vacant posts and create new posts on functional requirements.

4.      Revise wages of Central Government Employees with effect from 01.01.2011 and every five years thereafter.

5.      Scrap New Pension Scheme and extend the statutory defined benefited pension to all Central Government Employees irrespective of the date of recruitment.

6.      Regularise the Gramin Dak Sevak, Daily rated workers, contingent and casual workers by bringing about a definite scheme of regularization.

7.      Remove restriction imposed on compassionate appointments. End the discrimination on compassionate appointment between the Railway workers and other Central Government employees.

8.      Stop the move to introduce the productivity linked wage system - performance Related pay (PRP). Introduce productivity linked Bonus in all Departments, remove the ceiling of emoluments for bonus computation.

9.      Settle all items of anomalies (including the MACP related anomalies) raised in the National and Departmental Anomaly committees within a fixed time frame of two months. Set up the anomaly committees in those departments where it has not been set up till date with the standing committee members of National council; convene the meeting of the Departmental Council in all Ministries/Departments once in three months as envisaged in the JCM Scheme

10.  Make the Right to strike a legal right and stop curtailment of Trade Union rights

11.  Implementation of all arbitration awards.

12.  Raise the interest rate for GPF. Revise the OTA and Night Duty Allowance and Stitching and clothing rates of uniforms.

13.  Merge 50% DA with pay for all purposes including pension with effect from 01.01.2011.

14.  Vacate all Trade Union victimizations.

 Intensive campaign among the employees shall be conducted during the month of May and June 2011, to popularize the demands, by convening state level and district level conventions and office wise group meetings etc.

            Confederation National Secretariat will meet in the month of June 2011 to finalise future course of agitational programmes. 

                                                                    Fraternally yours,

(M. Krishnan)

Secretary General, NFPE

All India RMS and MMS Employees Union, Group-C and All India RMS EU Mail Guard and MTS, Orissa Circle branch on Indefinite Strike from 20.04.2011:

Dear Comrades,

The All India RMS and MMS Employees Union, Group-C and All India RMS EU Mail Guard and MTS, Orissa Circle branch has served due notice to the Chief Postmaster General, Orissa Circle on 07.04.2011 for going on Indefinite Strike from 20.04.2011 on 9 point Charter of Demands.

Extending its moral support to such a historic agitational programme in Orissa Circle,  the All India Postal Employees Union, Group-C, Bhubaneswar Divisional branch  appeals the Circle administration to come forward for a negotiated settlement on the issues mentioned in the Charter of Demands  and take the staff side  into confidence so that peace, tranquility and   better relationship between the Staff Side and administration shall remain unaffected.

The scanned copies of the Strike Notice and Charter of Demands are reproduced below for information of all members / viewers.

We request all the affiliates of National Federation of Postal Employees in particular and other unions and associations in general who believe in real trade union activities and want welfare of Orissa Postal Circle to extend their moral supports to this strike programme.  

Royal Mail brings new postal stamp to honour Subrata Roy:

Britain's national postal service Royal Mail is issuing a first class postal stamp to commemorate the achievements of Sahara Group chief Subrata Roy. Speaking on the occasion, Roy said, "I don't have voice to express my heartfelt gratitude to Royal Mail for issuing the special stamp. I don't think I deserve it. I will try to come up to the expectation of such a great honour".

Describing the UK as his second home country, Roy said the Group was currently working in eight countries outside India, mainly in oil, gas, minerals and other areas and it would soon spread to 45 countries. "The Headquarters for our international activities will always be London," Roy said adding, "in due course we will be able to generate 1000s of quality employment for the people of this country".

He also announced the setting up of a Forum consisting of intellectual thinkers and and smart minded executors to develop high quality employment opportunities. Answering questions, Roy said Sahara Group not only supported the Indian cricket team, but was also supporting Indian Hockey, Wrestling, Boxing, Volleyball and Shooting teams.

Referring to India's World Cup victory, Speaker John Bercow Bercow said "We don't grudge your triumph. We need to learn from it". Lauding the achievements of Sahara India Pariwar, the Speaker said, "we salute your accomplishments". He welcomed the Group's decision to have its international headquarters in London and commended the work done by Sahara India Pariwar in the fields of housing, education, sports and adult literacy.

Asked whether he planned to acquire any other hotels in the UK, Roy said "acquisition talks are there but nothing has been concluded". In India, he said "we are planning one lakh retail outlets and building 20 lakh houses for weaker sections". Sahara India acquired the iconic Grosvenor House hotel from the Royal Bank of Scotland Group for 470 million pounds.

The acquisition of the landmark hotel marks the entry of the group into the international luxury hotel market after having successfully proved its expertise in hospitality sector in India through Hotel Sahara Star and its luxurious 10,600 acres Aamby Valley City. The stamp designs were unveiled at a function here yesterday in the presence of the Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow, leading NRI industrialist, Lord Swraj Paul, Lord Navnit Dholakia, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, Cherie Blair, wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Lord Raj Loomba, founder-chairman of the Loomba foundation for welfare of children of Widows, Labour MP Keith Vaz and Baroness Shriela Flather.

Sahara India Pariwar, a major entity on the corporate scene is having diversified business interests in finance, infrastructure and housing in India and abroad and has emerged as one of India's largest conglomerates with assets having a market value of 15 billion pounds and more than a million workers.

Source: PTI, London, April 6, 2011

Human Resources are undoubtedly the Most Powerful Tools for the Economic Development: Mallikarjun Kharge:

Shri Mallikarjun Kharge, Union Minister of Labour & Employment said that Human resources are undoubtedly the most powerful tools for the economic development and competitiveness of the country and therefore Government of India is giving great importance to build human resources by skilling them appropriately, especially to take advantage of demographic profile of country. He was addressing the Swiss delegation headed by Mr. Johann N. Schneider-Ammann, Federal Councillor of Swiss Confederation in New Delhi today.

Shri Kharge further said that due to fast adoption of new technologies by industries, it becomes challenging for the training system to keep pace in upgrading the skill levels of the workforce as per the need of world of work. Identifying the emerging skill areas, adopting the technologies in the curriculum and accordingly updating the knowledge and skill levels of trainers is a continuous process. Qualified trainers are the fundamental key to provide quality skill training to attain high standards in vocational competencies. Their training and retraining is critical element of any successful training system, he said.

Labour & Employment Minister expressed happiness that Swiss Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries (SICC) with the support of OPET is implementing Vocational Education and Training pilot project based on the Swiss dual track vocational education and training system in state of Maharashtra and Karnataka. Initiative taken by the SICC through the above pilot project is unique in the country as under the pilot project trainees are being trained in Swiss companies and trainers have also been trained by them. He noted that initial results are very encouraging. This initiative will contribute to India’s future Industrial development in a Global Competitive Environment and it will also have a positive impact on Indo Swiss Trade relation. In addition it will enhance productivity and competitive capacity of both Swiss and Indian companies. This initiative strengthens existing bilateral relations between India and Switzerland and will offer the two countries the chance to explore new avenues of cooperation.

In his concluding remarks, Shri Kharge said that it is government’s endeavor to improve our Vocational Training System by taking advantage of the experiences of Swiss VET system and this is right time to give further boost to this initiative by bringing more and more Swiss and Indian companies on board. Possibilities may be explored for establishing mutual recognition of vocational qualification of both the countries. Possibilities will also be explored for cooperation in trainers’ training opportunities.

Source: PIB Release, April 7, 2011

Central Government Revises the National floor level Minimum Wage (NFLMW) from Rs. 100 Per Day to Rs. 115 Per Day Effective from 01.04.2011

The Central Government has revised the National Floor Level Minimum Wage (NFLMW) from Rs. 100/- per day to Rs. 115/- per day effective from 01.04.2011, on the basis of the rise in the All – India Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers during the period. The NFLMW is a non-statutory measure. Accordingly, all the State Governments/Union Territory Administrations have been requested to fix/revise minimum wages in such a way that in none of the scheduled employments, the minimum wage is less than National Floor Level Minimum Wage of Rs.115/- per day at present.

Further, in order to have a uniform wage structure and to reduce the disparity in minimum wages across the country, a concept of National Floor Level Minimum Wage (NFLMW) was mooted. The NFLMW per day has been revised from time to time primarily taking into account the increase in the Consumer Price Index Number for Industrial Workers. The National Floor Level Minimum Wage had been revised from Rs 80/- per day to Rs 100/- per day w.e.f. 01.11.2009. In the Central Sphere, minimum rates of wages were revised for workers in the Employment of  ‘agriculture’ , stone breaking and stone crushing’ , sweeping and cleaning’ , watch and ward’, ‘loading and unloading’ , ‘construction’, and ‘non-coal mines’ w.e.f. 01.10.2010 in the range of Rs.146/- to Rs.310/- per day for different categories of workers in different areas. The Central Government had also notified the Payment of Wages (Nomination) Rules, 2009 defining the procedure for nomination and restricting the nomination by workers to his family members.

The Union Government had earlier set up five Regional Committees in order to reduce the regional disparities in the minimum wages of same or similar scheduled employments. The regional disparity in minimum wages is attributed to differences in socio-economic and agro-climatic conditions, prices of essential commodities, paying capacity, productivity and local conditions influencing the wage rate. The composition of the five Regional Committees is as under:

Region	States/UTs covered
Eastern Region (6)	West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
North Eastern Region (8)	Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim.
Southern Region (6)	Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Lakshadweep.
Northern Region (9)	Punjab, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Delhi and Chandigarh.
Western Region (6)	Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

The main function of these Committees is to interact periodically with the State Governments/Union Territory Administrations of the different regions so as to deliberate on matter of regional interest as well as bridge the gap in the minimum wages of the same scheduled employment.

The Central Government had also re-constituted two Advisory Boards namely Minimum Wages Advisory Board (MWAB) vide notification in the Gazette of India (Extra Ordinary) S.O. 1334 (E) dated 7th June, 2010 and Central Advisory Board (CAB) vide notification in the Gazette of India (Extra Ordinary) S.O. 2064 (E) dated 23rd August, 2010 under Section 7 and 8 respectively of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948. 

Source: PIB Release, April 7, 2011

A FAVOURABLE VERDICT OF SUPREME COURT ON CASUAL LABOURERS

The Supreme Court has deprecated the Union of India engaging casual workers and keeping them in temporary service for long without making them permanent employees, thereby denying the benefits due to them.

Expressing its displeasure and anguish at the manner in which the Borders Roads Organisation treated its casual workers, a Bench of Justices D. K. Jain and H. L. Dattu said engaging casual workers for less than six months and giving them artificial breaks so that they would not become eligible for permanent status ill behaved the Union of India and its instrumentalities, “which are supposed to be model employers.”

Justice Jain, writing the judgment, quoted an earlier ruling said; “It is a fact that a large number of casual labourers have worked with Porject Vartak for a number of years but their period of engagement at no stage is more than six months and they are recruited afresh and they do not get the status of permanent employee. As per the regulations, casual personnel are not eligible for any other privileges for continued employment under the government.”

In the instant case, the Union of India appealed against a Gauhati High Court judgment directing the government to regularize the services of members of Vartak Labour Union, some of whom had been working with the BRO for 30 years. Formulation of any scheme for regularization being a matter of policy, it was not within the High Court’s domain to direct regularization of the services of temporary appointees, the Centre said. The Bench agreed with its contention and said the union’s claim for regularisation of its members merely because they had been working for BRO for a considerable period could not be granted in the light of several decisions of this court. The Bench, quoting these judgments, said: “Casual employment terminates when the same is discontinued and merely because a temporary or casual worker has been engaged beyond the period of his employment, he would not be entitled to be absorbed in regular service or made permanent, if the original appointment was not in terms of the process envisaged by the relevant rules.

However, in the facts and circumstances of the case, where the union members had been employed in term of the regulations and had been consistently engaged for the last 30 to 40 years, of course with short breaks, “We feel the Union of India would consider enacting and appropriate regulation/scheme for absorption and regularization of the services of casual worker engaged by the BRO for execution of its on-going projects,” the Bench said.

Courtesy: AIPEU, Gr.-C, CHQ

PFRDA Bill a threat to the working class: trade unionist:

            Veteran trade union leader and patron of Kerala Electricity Workers' Federation (KEWF) M. Sukumara Pillai has said it is high time the working class sensed the alarming threat posed by the “anti-worker” Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) Bill to the social security system of India and opposed it tooth and nail.

           Talking to The Hindu here on Wednesday, Mr. Pillai said an insecurity threat loomed large over the social security system, with the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government introducing the Bill in Parliament. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led opposition, National Democratic Alliance (NDA), too had supported the bill, leaving the Left parties to protest against the anti-worker bill in Parliament, he said.

Mr. Pillai said the united stand taken by the Congress and the BJP on the new pension Bill itself was ample testimony to the fact that the economic policies of both the parties were one and the same.

         He said the proposed pension scheme was a product of the gobalisation and liberalisation policies of the successive Union governments run by the UPA and the NDA.

         It is noteworthy that the NDA government, through an executive order, had made applicable a new ‘contributory pension scheme' to all Central government employees who joined service on or after January 1, 2004, recovering 10 per cent of the salary and dearness allowance of each employee towards the contributory pension scheme.

          Mr. Pillai alleged that the new Bill was part of the Union government's neo-liberal, pro-corporate, agenda to alter the very concept of pension, as a defined benefit to the workers after their retirement, to a defined contribution by the workers themselves. The alarming part of the Bill was that it proposed shifting the onus of funding the regulation of the pension scheme from the government to a regulator, he said.

         Mr. Pillai alleged that the main objective of the proposed scheme was to divert the hefty pension contribution to the share market and corporate equity funds.

          The trade union leader alleged that the Congress and the BJP had joined hands to open avenues for foreign investors in the country's pension fund. Mr. Pillai said the working class in India should strongly oppose the government move to implement a market-linked pension scheme.

           If the Bill was passed, fund managers would be appointed because the hefty amount accumulated in the pension scheme had to be invested in the share market. They would reap huge profits when the market boomed and if the market crashed, the pension fund would collapse and the employees' savings would be lost, he said.

Source: The Hindu, April 6, 2011

Payment of Dearness Allowance to Gramin Dak Sevaks (GDS) at revised rates with effect from 01-01-2011.

NO. 14-01/2011-PAP

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS & IT

DEPARTMENT OF POSTS

(ESTABLISHMENT DIVISION)

DAK BHAVAN, SANSAD MARGNEW DELHI,

The 5^th April,2011

To

All Chief Postmasters General,

All Postmaster General,

All Directors/Dy. Director of Accounts (Postal).

Subject: Payment of Dearness Allowance to Gramin Dak Sevaks (GDS) at revised rates with effect from 01-01-2011.

Sir/Madam,

          Consequent upon grant of another installment of dearness allowance with effect from 01-01-2010 to Central Government Employees, vide Government of India, Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure O.M. No.1(2)/2011-EII(B), dated the 24^th March,2011, the Gramin Dak Sevaks (GDS), have also become entitled to the payment of dearness allowance on basic TRCA at the revised rate with effect from 01-01-2011. It has, therefore, been decided that the dearness allowance payable to the Gramin Dak Sevaks shall be enhanced from the existing rate of 45% to 51%, on the basic Time Related Continuity Allowance, with effect from 1^ST  January, 2011.

2.         The additional installment of dearness allowance payable under this order, shall be paid in cash to all Gramin Dak Sevaks. The payment of arrears of dearness allowance for the month of January and February, 2011, shall not be made before the date of disbursement of TRCA of March, 2011.

3.         The expenditure on this account will be debitable to the Sub Head 'Salaries' under the relevant head and should be met from the sanctioned grant.

4.         This issues with the concurrence of Integrated Finance Wing vide their Diary No. 01/FA/11/CS, dated 05.04.2011

Yours faithfully

Sd/-

(RAJ KUMAR)

DIRECTOR(ESTT)

TELE:23096036/23036793

FAX:011-23096007/23096036

Transfer policy of IPoS, Group-A ( JTS, STS,JAG, SAG ):

Com. M Krishnan, Secretary General, NFPE attending World Congress of WFTU at Athens (Greece) from 6th to 8th April, 2011:

WORLD FEDERATION OF TRADE UNIONS (WFTU)

WORLD CONGRESS AT ATHENS (GREECE)

FROM 2011 APRIL 6^TH TO 10^TH

Com. M. Krishnan, Secretary General, NFPE attending

The World Congress of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) will be held at Athens (Greece) from 6^th to 10^th April 2011. Com. K. K. N. Kutty, Secretary General, Confederation of Central Government Employees and workers & Com. M. Krishnan, Secretary General, NFPE are attending the Conference.

WFTU is the strongest united movement of the World Trade Unions, with Head quarters at Athens, the capital city of Greece. It is known as the democratic progressive Trade union movement of the world. WFTU was formed in the year 1945 and now about 220 trade unions from 120 countries are affiliated to it. WFTU is a member of ILO. General Secretary is Com. George Mavrikoz.

While, the All India Postal Employees Union, Group-C, Bhubaneswar Division wishes both Com. Krishnan and Com. Kutty  a very happy and successful journey, do hope that their experience will certainly strengthen the trade union movements in India.

Issue of Postal Life Insurance Government of India Special Security:

PRESS NOTE

Government of India have announced the issue of 8.01 per cent ‘Postal Life Insurance Government of India Special Security 2021’ for Rs 4,000 crore (nominal) and 8.08 per cent ‘Postal Life Insurance Government of India Special Security 2023’ for Rs. 3,000 crore (nominal). The Special Securities are being issued at par to Directorate of Postal Life Insurance on March 31, 2011 (Thursday) to convert part of the frozen corpus of Post Office Life Insurance Fund (POLIF) and Rural Post Life Insurance Fund (RPOLIF).

The investment in the Special Security by the banks and Insurance Companies will not be reckoned as an eligible investment in Government securities for their statutory requirements.  However, such investment by the insurance companies will be eligible to be reckoned as investment under “other Approved Securities” category as defined under Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Investment) Regulations, 2000. Further, the investment by the Provident Funds, Gratuity Funds, Superannuation Funds, etc. in the Special Securities will be treated as an eligible investment under the administrative order of the Ministry of Finance. 

The Special Securities will be transferable and eligible for market ready forward transactions (Repo).

Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance

New Delhi: Chaitra 14, 1933;  April 04, 2011

Pension sector not yet ready for FDI: Interim regulator:

Much has been read into the government move to take foreign direct investment (FDI) out of the pension reforms Bill and keep it as an executive decision. But the pension sector is not yet ready for FDI, says interim sector regulator Yogesh Agarwal.

He told Business Standard that it might not be before 2-3 years that foreign investors would show some interests in the pension sector and a call on putting a cap on FDI would be taken at that moment of time only.

“First of all, the pension sector has to grow. Till now, I don’t see much interest from foreign investors in the sector,” Agarwal, who heads the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), said.

The PFRDA chairman said foreign investors would wait for the sector to expand and gain a critical mass. “Only then, interest (from foreign investors) will come,” he added.

Talking of FDI at this point of time, was really a theoretical exercise, he emphasized.

“When time comes, when expression of interest comes from foreign investors, we will take a view in conjunction with the Government of India as to how much FDI will be allowed,” Agarwal said.

To a query on whether there was any preliminary thinking to put the FDI cap on the sector, he said, “No... There is no need to take a call (on putting FDI cap on the pension sector) because there is no interest.”

Recommending on the earlier version of the PFRDA Bill, which lapsed with the dissolution of the Lok Sabha in 2009, Parliament’s standing committee of finance had suggested the FDI cap in the sector might be in line with that in the insurance sector. Currently, 26 per cent FDI is allowed in private sector insurers. A Bill to raise this cap to 49 per cent is with the standing committee on finance.

A proposal to raise the cap in private insurance companies was made by then finance minister P Chidambaram in his speech for the Budget in 2004. It is yet to be implemented. So, the government decided to keep FDI issue out of the revised version of the PFRDA Bill, tabled in the Budget session of Parliament last month.

Explained Agarwal, “In drafting the Bill, we found that what should be the extent of FDI need not be put in the Bill. It is not a legislative issue. It is an executive decision, as to how much FDI will be allowed.’

He said this would make it easier for the government to decide on increasing or decreasing FDI percentage in the pension sector.

“All the government has to do is to make up its mind and issue an order,” he added.

PFRDA was established by the government on August 23, 2003, through an executive order. It is still an interim regulator and does not have statutory powers. The PFRDA Bill will give statutory powers to the regulator.

Meanwhile, the Union government had announced a new pension system (NPS) for its recruits who had joined from January 1, 2004. Since April 1, 2008, the pension contributions of central government employees under NPS are being invested by professional pension fund managers. As many as 27 state governments and Union Territories have also notified NPS.

NPS was also thrown open to all citizens of the country since 2009.

Besides, the government had announced a co-contributory pension scheme, called Swavalamban, for those in the unorganised sector. The government provides Rs 1,000 to every account a year for five years for those who joined the scheme during 2010-11 and 2011-12. The government expects two million subscribers to be there in this scheme by March 2012 from the current level of 500,000.

Source: Business Standard,  April 4, 2011

Govt Employees Protest PFRDA Bill:

                THROUGH a statement issued from Kolkata on March 25, by its senior vice chairman Sukomal Sen, the All India State Government Employees’ Federation (AISGEF) has informed that on the day the federation organised in all the states of the country, right from Kashmir to Kerala, two-hour walkouts and demonstrations to condemn the introduction of Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) bill and demand its withdrawal. Effigies of the bill were also burnt in some states.

            The All India State Government Employees Federation and the Confederation of Central Government Employees had jointly called for these protest actions.

            One recalls that on March 24 this year, the UPA government at the centre introduced the PFRDA bill with the support of main opposition party, the BJP, ignoring the strong protest registered by the Left parties. It was immediately after knowing about it that the state and central government employees launched the aforementioned two- hour walkout from their offices and conducted powerful demonstrations in front of their offices, condemning the anti-employee attitude of the UPA government and demanding immediate withdrawal of the bill.

            It is reported that state government employees organised the programme with success in Tripura, Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan. Employees in Kerala, Tripura and West Bengal organised massive walkouts and demonstrations.

            In Haryana, where the Sarva Karamchari Sangh had lent its support to the call for protest actions, about 20,000 employees belonging to the electricity corporation, municipalities and municipal corporations, teachers, irrigation, education, health, public health, urban development, forest department participated in such walkouts and demonstrations at 180 places of 21 districts of the state.

            For this protest, the Sarva Karmachari Sangh leaders had toured through whole of the state to mobilise the employees for sustained programmes of action in the days to come. They brought out the pernicious impact of the bill on the existing pensionary benefits of the government employees and also exposed the real character of the BJP in detail. 

            During the campaign on this programme in all the states, AISGEF leaders and activists explained the political aspect of this issue. They convincingly placed before the employees the difference between the UPA-I government which, standing on the support of 61 Left MPs, was unable to commit any such mischief while the UPA-II government, taking the advantage of the weak position of the Left in parliament, desperately steamrolling all the harmful and anti-employee bill like the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill and the PFRDA bill, while the next to follow is more FDI in insurance industry.

            The AISGEF’s contention is that it is due to the pressure exerted by the World Bank, IMF and finance capital in and out the country that the successive governments at the centre, headed by the NDA and the UPA, were trying to privatise the pension funds by placing it at the disposal of private fund managers and thereby paving way for investment of the astronomical pension fund amount in share market speculations. Despite the fact that international experience has proved the privatisation of pension as being beneficial neither to the employees nor to governments, such shameless attempts are being pursued continuously in the interest of private entrepreneurs.

            Right from the early days of 2005, when the bill was first introduced in the parliament, MPs belonging to the Left parties in and the working class all over the country have been relentlessly fighting against the blatant attempts of the governments and that is why the bill could not be passed in the parliament. Yet the central government and many state governments are implementing the new pension scheme through administrative orders, without the sanction of parliament. Only the Left ruled the states, viz, West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala, have declared that they will not implement the new pension scheme for their employees.

            The All India State Government Employees’ Federation and the Confederation of the Central Government Employees and Workers have decided to further intensify the struggle through direct the entire government employees and teachers in this country, numbering more than 80 lakhs, for withdrawal of the PFRDA bill and restoration of the existing Defined Benefit Pension Scheme to all the employees and teachers irrespective of their recruitment into the service. The AISGEF leaders have also urged the employees to get prepared for a prolonged and militant struggle so as to upturn the government’s anti-working class decision. They said the political balance has to be immediately changed to save the country’s interest.

CITU OPPOSES PFRDA BILL,

LABOUR LAW AMENDMENT

            On the same day, March 25, the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) expressed its strongly opposition to the introduction of the PFRDA Bill in parliament a day before. The CITU said the bill was part of the government’s neo-liberal pro-corporate agenda to change the concept of pension as “defined benefit” to the workers after retirement to a “defined contribution” by the workers. This makes a mockery of pension as a social security scheme, with the onus of funding and regulation of the scheme shifting from the government or employer to a regulator. The main objective is to divert the pension contribution by the workers to the share market and corporate equity funds.

            This bill, initiated during the NDA regime, could not be pushed through because of the opposition by the working class outside the parliament and by the Left parties in the parliament. But the CITU is of the opinion that in a surreptitious manner the UPA government of the Congress party and its allies has kept the avenues open to the regulator for unlimited foreign investment in pension fund without requiring the parliament’s assent. This shows how the present government is in connivance with the major opposition party, the BJP, in surrendering to the pressure of the international finance capital.

            The CITU has also strongly opposed the introduction of a labour law amendment bill proposing exemption from furnishing returns and maintaining registers by certain establishments. The bill, if passed, would exempt more than 80 per cent of existing establishments in the country, to ignore virtually all labour laws of the land, as they would not be required to maintain any records of workers working within their establishments. The CITU, along with other central trade union organisations, has been opposing this so called ‘labour reform’ bill which will usher a jungle law in the industry.

            The CITU has calls upon the working class to intensify their ongoing struggle against the above legislations, so that the corporate captive government is forced to withdraw the above bills from the parliament.

Source: People’s Democracy, Vol. XXXV, No. 14,  April 3, 2011

International Trade union News:- ‘Growth is not accompanied by employment’ – Interview with Kwasi Adu-Amankwah

Africa’s labour movement is on the move from Cape to Cairo – demanding democracy, devising policy and building a new African economy that creates jobs and opportunities for all. Not only is another Africa possible, trade unionist Kwasi Adu-Amankwah tells Africa Renewal, it’s on its way.

Interview with labour leader Kwasi Adu-Amankwah

Kwasi Adu-Amankwah, the former head of Ghana’s powerful labour federation, was elected general-secretary of the Africa division of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa) in 2007, putting him at the helm of a pan-African labour movement representing 16 million workers in 47 countries. Africa Renewal’s Michael Fleshman spoke with him at the World Social Forum in Dakar, Senegal, on 8 February, shortly after Mr. Adu-Amankwah led a march to the Egyptian embassy in solidarity with the Egyptian people’s pro-democracy movement.

Africa Renewal Why has the ITUC-Africa come to the World Social Forum? Aren’t mass-membership organizations like trade unions different from the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and activist groups that predominate here?

Kwasi Adu-Amankwah ITUC-Africa has always followed the World Social Forum. It poses an alternative to the existing world. We came to propagate our own ideas, but also to learn from the rest of civil society around the world about their activities and perspectives.
Our unions reach out to NGOs even though they are not membership-based. The issue-based NGOs develop expertise and the unions are happy to link up with them. So although there are differences, unions and NGOs can always find ways to work together. Unions can have a great social impact through their role in the economy. But unions have not been so successful at marketing themselves. They assume that people know about them. NGOs go out of their way to make themselves heard.

AR What role are African unions playing in pro-democracy and economic reform movements around the continent?

KAA Unions were very involved in anti-colonial struggles in the 1950s and ‘60s. Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and Guinea are examples. In South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe in the late ‘70s and ‘80s too. In the second wave of democratization struggles [in the 1990s], unions again were very present.
Now it appears that Africa is opening up for business. Just before the global financial crisis, there were good figures about growth. But many of our unions are not impressed. In large measure, the growth that appears to have occurred is not growth that is accompanied by employment.
But even more importantly, a lot of that growth is in areas like the mining sector — mineral resources and oil. It just reinforces existing relations in African economies, where African countries produce raw materials that find their way onto the markets of industrialized countries to fuel their industrialization. There isn’t that much added value in our growth. They don’t have any linkages to the rest of the economy.

AR What impact has the world financial crisis had?

KAA When you talk about the global crisis — 20 per cent unemployment in developed countries is a big matter. In Africa, that is something we have always lived with. Unemployment has always been high.
Sometimes it is obscured by what is described as the informal economy. In the kind of informal economy we have in Africa there is no social protection [unemployment compensation, health benefits and so on]. It’s really just disguised unemployment. In some of our countries it’s as high as 80 per cent! It’s only in South Africa and some parts of North Africa that the wage-earning sector is beyond 30-40 per cent.
The trade union movement has largely been busy trying to secure better terms and conditions of employment for our members, who are largely in the formal sector. But in the past decade we have been concerned about the bigger question, about the kinds of economies we have. We do think it is possible to have a global social safety net, given the world’s resources.

AR How do you create jobs in Africa, given the twin realities of underdevelopment and globalization?

KAA One thing is we’re trying to assist our affiliates to build their research and policy capacity, to help them engage with their governments. Also, we are building on the experience of some of our unions, who produced an Alternative to Neo-liberalism in Southern Africa (ANSA).* They are working in different countries to find how the unions, working with other components of civil society, can develop more clearly the alternative.

AR Neo-liberalism is a term to describe what some consider radical free-market policies — deregulated financial markets, unrestricted trade and the ending of government social safety nets. What alternatives are African unions proposing?

KAA This is ANSA. The starting point of development should be the people, not the markets. Policies of popular participation and control of resources that empower people to make decisions for themselves follow from that. Related to this is the whole question of African integration. We need to rediscover ourselves in terms of similarities and develop systems of governance that allow the different parts of Africa to fit into each other — and then be able to meet with the rest of the world.

AR Don’t these kinds of economic changes require equally far-reaching political changes?

KAA Yes they do. At the dawn of independence the colonial powers split our territories up into small countries. In the first wave of independence our leaders seemed satisfied with them. They were too busy trying to protect their new-found sovereignties to see the value of joining together. That has bedeviled us until today. We have 54 small countries, each with some sovereignty. You can’t deal with the rest of the world that way. Meanwhile the rest of the world in reality sees us as one.
We need to cede some real power to a central entity, while keeping local autonomy that preserves our diversity and what we know locally. It is time to break with artificial barriers among ourselves. We need to re-engineer our existence to ensure that we as Africans can come into our own. When we get to that stage I don’t think anybody can dictate their terms to us.
And for that to happen, the character of the African state itself really has to change. There needs to be much more democracy. There needs to be much more decentralization over issues that people can decide for themselves. I think that is the political agenda for Africa that we can make a contribution to as unions.

AR The World Social Forum slogan is “Another World Is Possible.” Would you say that another Africa is possible?

KAA Look at Tunisia and Egypt today. These are African countries. I would say another Africa is happening.

* Alternatives to Neo-liberalism in Southern Africa (ANSA) is a 10-point political and economic programme intended to serve as an alternative to the development model promoted by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. 

Source:VibeGhanna.com

Accenture offers digital mail service as postal market transforms;

Accenture has added digital mail to the line of services it offers to postal agencies across the world to help them fend off new competition as traditional mail volumes drop dramatically.

The service provider has 20 corporate postal services customers and estimates its postal services systems deliver half of the world's mail.

With traditional mail volumes expected to fall by over 40% by 2020, digital mail offers an alternative. Digital mail converts traditional mail such as utility bills into a digital format and sends it to a secure mailbox, keeping it separate from e-mail.

Accenture recently presented research at the European Postal Conference in London. It found that mail is expected to decline by 44% by 2020, to 165.2 billion pieces compared to 297.2 billion pieces in 2009 volumes for 26 postal agencies included in its research. 

Source; computerweekly.com