Mass demonstration and issue of Memorandum at Regional Office Coimbatore TN

The JCA comprising of the NFPE , FNPO of both Postal and RMS wings have decided to submit a memorandum to the Regional Administration at Coimbatore TN on the following Issues on 28.03.2014 at 17.00 hours ...RO Coimbatore...

1. Unrealistic fixing of Targets in RPLI / Savings Accounts to each Post Office and pressure there to

2. Regional Office pressure in terms of Monitoring of various BD activities....

3. Over-enthusiastic behavior of middle level officers beyond the power of their senior officers..

4. Mass Deputation of Operative staff to Regional office and refusal to relieve even after completion 10 years at RO.......

5.Impractical Training Policies and Tortures by regional admin ...

6.Obtaining complaints from public for punishing officials at the ground level for base less issues..

7.Compulsory identification as mailoverseers / Sorting Postman without willingness of the officials...

8. Heavy Operating cost for e Post messages procured under bulk customers for Rs 5/- and spending Rs 50/- to deliver the same by means of paper , printer cartridge , monitoring , phone calls etc..

The JCA has also decided to prepare for an " Indefinite Strike at Regional Level " if the Admin do not correct themselves on the above issues

OFFICE MANAGEMENT TIPS FOR POSTMASTER CADRE OFFICIALS

Work study at Post offices :

It is the basic need for every Postmaster on assuming charge of the Post Office to understand its staff , transactions , mail arrangements , area of service , volume of mails , the people and the culture in and around the Jurisdiction . It will provide a clear idea about what is what .

Staff 

The establishment and the working strength  to be studied along with the previous statistics about the staff  that was allowed to continue in the office.  A rough calculation should be made with the available statistics ie MPCM , Savings Bank , accountable articles for previous 3 year period.  After satisfying yourself with the work load , the actual requirement of staff is to be take note of.

Transaction statistics

The MPCM , SB and all other accountable articles should be studied for a specific period say for previous period and make a small comparison about the improvements / decrease in the transactions. This will give you a knowledge about the overall performance of the post office and its functions.

Mail Arrangement

Make a study on the receipt and dispatch of mails at office and find out the suitability .  This will provide a scope of identifying number of staff required at the receipt time and dispatch time for ordinary mails. Cross check the mail arrangement with the office working hours and identify dead time wherein there is a difference between receipt of bags and opening cum processing along with the closing of bags and the dead time between closing and dispatch of mails. This provides a opportunity to identify and shift staff for the work and for modification of working hours according to the mail timings.

If mail is received early and the office also commences immediately	Check the counter service requirements ie no of staff to attend counter
If mail is received early and the office opens after a short duration	Check for staff requirement for the mails to be processed and modify the timings for staff accordingly
If mails is received after opening of office	Check the mms and mail arrangement schedules  for modification and possibility to receive mails within time
If mails received at frequent intervals ie twice in the morning	Check the interval time between the two arrivals if the time is short try processing together and if there is a good gap say 1 hours. Process only the ordinary mails first and the accountable mails together. ( you can also prepare two list for postman ie Delivery SLIP no 1 & 2 by creating duplicate beats for postman)  There can be no restrictions on creation for the same beat and only requirement is to send all mails received for delivery on the same day..

Area of service

Different post offices have different geographical dimensions for delivery and service.  Have a study about the area within a short period of time which will help a lot in the day to day work as a Postmaster

If the area is have a good dimensional size	Prepare to work according to the area requirement ie The Postman who should proceed first , second and so on and deploy staff accordingly
If the area does not have a good dimensional size	Prepare a dimension your self and plan to send the postman accordingly.
If the area is like a square or rectangle in shape	Prepare Postman for beats and not beats for postman.  Select the postman with service hierarchy  and provide nearest square for the most senior and next to his junior and so on.
If the area is a butterfly type in shape	Prepare customer wise postman beat or location based ie.  Two postman should not be allowed to share one area . Hence one full area should be provided for one postman . They can also be some rotation within the beats at regular intervals.

Volume of mails

Analyze the volume of mails ie Ordinary mails on a day to day basis and understand variations in the volume ie Monday will be heavier than Tuesday , and Tuesday will be easier than Wednesday and so on This provides an understanding in how the Postman can be controlled or used effectively in other activities of the office ie . PLI , RPLI , Account Opening etc

Accountable mails also needs some study for analyzing the work load of the postman . The number of bulk mails delivered by each postman and the details of such customers to be taken note of for providing window delivery. The newly created townships should also be studied about the requirement of manpower for mail delivery.

People and culture

This is the most important aspect in analyzing the functioning of a post office . Each place has its own culture and tradition , business and profession . we have to go thro the life of the people , especially their requirement from Post office.  This will be helpful in deciding the product to be concentrated at the post office rather than concentrating on all the products and services of a PO.

CRISIS MANAGEMENT

What can a  Postmaster  do on the following situations

Leave of staff	Should be regulated within the office and should see that each and every staff can avail their required leave in time. Emergency situations are exempted and upto the postmaster to decide. Do not recommend leave for staff for long durations for silly reasons . Just make a remark on the leave application on your disinterest ( Instead you can request your staff to cutshort their leave)
Deputations	When you have already studied about the staff engagement for the past years and also current requirements , the transactions , the mails , the people now you can readily fight with the administration about the necessity on production of the statistics . You may also communicate the authority that you should not be held responsible for any deficiency of service at the counter when staff are being compelled for deputations.
Shortage of staff due to leave and deputation	Open only those counters where you can provide service. Ask customer to stand in a single queue . Accept transactions on First in and First Out method . Take your standard timing for completion of transactions . Put a notice to people on the present day staff position of  your office.

Business development activities

At present the Administration is highly worried about the BD products and its revenue. It becomes inevitable to do some business for the management even though we may be at a hectic situations. After completion of the above study and implementation of the CRISIS management technique , one can be free enough to identify products and services for business.

Stages for business development

When you find that there is  business in mails	Concentrate only on mails for a period of 6 months and do not consider admin pressure and achieve some good jumps in regd, speed , parcels  bookings and record it for you support
Product change	Identify the next product ie Savings Bank and concentrate to open more number of accounts for a period of 6 months and create a record of the same for support

Modify supervising Techniques

Our traditional supervising techniques needs lots of modifications and to be brought to suit the present environment  that can protect against the management , staff and the public

Delivery performance	Check returns by yourself  and concentrate only on those articles returned undelivered ( Do not waste time from invoicing for supervision )
Postman Delivery time	See that sufficient people are attending the work to ensure the postman leaves in time
Reporting	Always report on all discrepancies ie misspent , misdirected , complaints etc and do not take your self into problems
Technology problems	Do not try to rectify it by yourself . There are people to do their job so just report and record it for support . Do not try to be over enthusiastic as it will not support your job.
Late arrival of Postman	Modify staff timings accordingly and make yourself convenient to supervise it after that.  Ie for office which starts from 09.00 to 05.00 make a staff to attend from 10.00pm to 06.00pm  and modify your time accordingly

Reply to Sri Madan Sabnavis 
(Chief Economist and General Manager of Credit Analysis & Research Limited) wrote an article, 
Why 'Post Bank of India' is not a workable idea, 

Dear Sir,

I have just gone thro your article on "why Post Bank of India is not a Workable Idea " . I was really surprised to see such an article from a high profile economist and a General Manager for CA & RL.

I would like to reply to your points is a very understandable manner...

Firstly..regarding literacy of the staff..
1. Recent recruitment for the lowest Cadre in the Department ie  Branch Postmaster functioning in villages as Gramin Dak Savaks can be seen recruited at 85% to 93 % rank holders  in Tenth Standard and more than 85 % of those people are holders of Bachelor Degree and some are even with Technical Degrees like BE ...

2. Your assumption that they can only classify stamp and document , but cannot go beyond that is totally wrong . Their present job is that and it does not conclude that they cannot do beyond it ..Do you mean that those who have secured high marks and higher qualification but doing a normal job cannot do beyond that ? ( we have a BPM who has just completed his ACS course and in Practical training for 18 months )

3. when there are people with professional qualifications like MCA , BE , etc , will it be very difficult for them to pick up commercial knowledge like banking , insurance etc..very funny..

4. Regarding Deposits and Withdrawals in Post Offices , Basically Post Office savings bank is a function forming part of the banking job. ( The Banking Counters do perform the same kind of Transactions ) . And on the other side of Lending , it need just a standard package of training and a certification from a banking institute.   The recruitment for banks are all based on qualification at degree level and no matter what the degree is and are sent for a standardized training package in the banking training centre. The Successful completion of the training course makes the candidate fit for banking job and is posted to a branch. ( normally the training will provide basic functioning and processing etc and the trainee gains knowledge only at the ground level ).  SO Training in Banking could solve the issue for banking knowledge.

5. Regarding postoffices are found too small in villages and rural areas.. its true and you should know that atleast we have something small at a place .  Developing from something is easier that Bringing  from nothing.

6. The Postal Assistants from India Post may kindly be analysed . Many of them have arrived  from high profile MNCs & Technology companies. Many such candidates are qualified like BA , BSC , BCom , Mcom , BE , ME , MCA, MBA , ICWAIs,ACS, etc..so we dont feel that much hard to do a simple banking business which is being run by nationalized and foreign banks.

7.I would like to clear that the Post Bank of India would be brought as corporate limited company under Ministry of communications , India Post and have its own board of directors. The recruitment for Post Bank will be done separately complying with the RBI recruitment rules for banking and will be adopted accordingly and hence the existing employees do not worry about their participation in the project..

Finally Sri, Madam Sabnavis Ji.. As a high profile economist and a general manager .. i hope that Ji should think about bringing out something from a highly established department and use it for the welfare of the village and rural masses , rather than posting such an article degrading the employees and the network.

Knowledge and qualifications cannot be acquired by birth.. it is a process and need to be undergone from school , college , work and experience . All the Banks in India and in the world have come from the first step and expanded at various stages .India Post has a high life since 1898 and still existing with the same majestic outlook.  Many Banks have vanished and many of our competitors have died , but we stood and will stand for ever.

Next time the Publisher of your article will conclude that " Article from Madan Sabnavis ????" haha.
Just wait and see..........

THE EMPLOYEE..................................

1. Revision of HSG I Recruitment Rules -- On the Way:

 It is informed that the Revised HSG-I Recruitment Rules has been approved by the DoPT. Now the clearance of Law Ministry is pending. As per the DoPT instructions, minimum 5 years service is required for promotion from HSG II to HSG I. All Circle Secretaries /Divisional Secretaries are instructed to take immediate action to fill up all the HSG I vacancies as per the existing HSG I Recruitment Rules if not already done especially before notification of revised rules.

         All those who have completed 3 years of service in HSGII as on today should be promoted to HSG I as per the existing Recruitment Rule for HSG I  . 

         After Implementation of the revised HSG I RR , those who have completed 5 years of service in HSG II will alone be eligible for promotion to HSG I  at Par with the Postmaster Grade II officials..............

               2.  Cadre Restructuring Committee— Present Stage:

The DDG(P) & Chairman, Cadre Restructuring Committee intimated that the current Proposal (Click to see)  submitted by the Staff side is to be put for discussion under internal meeting of the official side (Govt.side). Thereafter formal Cadre Restructuring Committee Meeting with the Staff side (Union side) will be convened shortly to finalize our current proposal.

After discussions, the following recommendations in respect to the cadre restructuring of Group ‘C’ employees were agreed to by the Department.

(a)   The post of SPMs in Single Handed Post Offices and Double Handed Post Offices will be placed in the Grade Pay of Rs. 2800/- in the Pay Band PB-I.

(b)   The Post of Sub Postmasters in Triple Handed Post offices and LSG Post Offices will be placed in the Grade Pay of Rs. 4200/- in the Pay Band PB-II.

(c)    The post of HSG-II Head Postmasters and Sub-Postmasters will be placed in the Grade Pay of Rs. 4600/- in the Pay Band PB-II.

(d)   After the implementation of the above restructuring, the officials in the Grade Pay of Rs. 4600/-, who have completed 4 years of regular service, will be granted the Grade Pay of Rs. 4800/- in the Pay Band-II on non-functional basis after following the usual procedure of non-functional upgradation(s)

(e)   Cadre ratio as per the agreed position mentioned at (a) to (d) above, will be worked out and the ratio so worked out will be replicated to the SA cadre of RMS, PA cadre of Circle & Administrative offices as also to the PA cadre of SBCO.

(f)     In the light of peculiar situation of Postman/mail Guard cadre where the work for bulk of the cadre continues to remain the same; as a special case the Committee recommends the ratios as worked out in pursuance of (e) above may be considered for implementation for these cadres as well and that the cadre so restructured may concurrently get the benefit of MACP also. The Committee further recommends that a proposal may be considered for submission to the 7^th CPC to have a percentage based promotion scheme for this cadre akin to the scheme of Staff Car Drivers.

Other Demand of the Union Side........

We are once again constrained to submit the following proposals and modifications for your judicious and dispassionate consideration and acceptance, with a fervent hope that the same will receive due consideration.

1.      GENERAL LINE POSTS:

While upgrading the existing LSG posts (GP 2800) to HSG-II posts (GP 4200) only the LSG posts of Sub Postmasters is taken into account. All the other posts in the LSG grade such as Asst. Postmasters in Head Post offices and above, Asst. Sub Postmasters in certain major sub post offices, etc. are avoided. This will result only in marginal increase in the number of HSG II post (GP 4200) as below:

(a)	Total number of triple handed Postmaster’s post to be upgraded	3732
(b)	Total number of LSG posts including Asst. Postmasters Posts	6989
(c)	Total Posts	10721
(d)	Out of this LSG posts carved out for creation of   Postmasters Grade-I to be deducted	2097
(e)	Remaining Posts for upgradation to HSG II	8624
(f)	Out of this LSG Asst. Postmasters and ASPMs posts are to be deducted	4000 (Correct figure not available with staff side, it will be more than 4000)
(g)	Net posts remaining for upgradation to HSG II (GP 4200)	4624

Now we are having 4892 LSG Posts in General line (6989-2097 PM Cadre). Even after upgrading ‘A’ class Postmasters as HSG-II (GP 4200) the number of Posts available for upgradation to HSG-II will be less than the number available now and employees are not going to be benefited, if only those posts are upgraded. Hence our request for upgradation of all existing LSG posts (not only Postmasters posts) to GP 4200 along with Postmaster posts of ‘A’ Class offices. Similarly all posts in HSG-II (other than Postmaster Posts also) may be upgraded to 4600/-.

2.      PROMOTION CHANCES OF ACCOUNTANT QUALIFIED OFFICIALS:

At present PO & RMS exam qualified officials are posted as Accountants. Officials working as Asst. Postmaster (Accounts) should posses Accountant qualification. There is no separate channel of promotion for qualified Accountants above the post of APM (Accounts). As per the proposal of the Administration side those Asst. Postmaster posts will remain as LSG (GP 2800) only and further those APM (Accounts) posts which are now in HSG-II (GP 4200) will remain as HSG-II (GP 4200) without any further upgradaion. In fact there is no upgrdation for Accounts line posts and the qualified officials have to move out of their Accountant/Asst. Postmaster (Accounts) posts if they want promotional upgradation, thereby the Department will be loosing the services of qualified officials to work in Accounts Branches. Nobody will be willing to work as Accountants and Asst. Postmaster (Accounts).

Hence it is once again requested to upgrade all the posts of PO & RMS Accountants to LSG (GP 2800) and LSG APM Accounts posts to HSG II (GP 4200) and at least 20% of the posts in upgraded GP 4200 may be further upgraded to HSG-I APM Accounts (GP 4600). Thus Accountant qualified officials will have their own channel of promotion. Regarding promotion to GP 4800/- the conditions applicable to General line officials may be made applicable to them also.

3.      POSTMASTER CADRE:

At present norm based LSG Postmasters posts are upgraded as Postmaster Grade-I. When LSG Postmaster posts are upgraded to 4200 GP (HSG-II), the Postmaster Grade-I posts shall also be automatically upgraded to the Grade Pay of 4200/-. Otherwise a glaring anomaly will arise. Their counter parts working in general line LSG post offices will be in GP 4200 where as they will remain in GP 2800. The benefit of upgradation should be made equally applicable to Postmaster Grade-I, Grade-II and Grade-III officials also by suitably upgrading the posts in Postmaster Cadre.

4.      SYSTEM ADMINISTRATORS:

In the JCM Departmental Council meeting held on 27.08.2010, JCM (DC) standing Committee dated 18.12.2012 and 23.08.2013 it was decided that the demand for creation of a separate cadre for system Administrators will be considered by the Cadre Restructuring Committee.

But to our dismay, surprisingly the Department informed in the JCM Departmental Council meeting held 23.08.2013 that creation of separate cadre is not feasible.

We are totally in disagreement with the above stand taken by the Department. it seems that the Department has already made up its mind not to create a separate Cadre. We are not repeating the unstinted yeomen service done by the existing System Administrators since the inception of computers in Postal Department by converting it from a wholly computer illiterate department to the present fully computerised status. We have already explained in detail all the points which justified a better treatment for system Administrators and also for creation of a separate cadre as a promotional cadre of qualified PA/SAs. Inspite of all our best efforts, it is quite unfortunate that the Department is taking a totally unreasonable and negative attitude towards the SAs and their claim for better treatment has been mercilessly rejected.

The role of existing System Administrators in total computerization and also in core banking Solutions must be recognised. They are very much frustrated and the discontentment is mounting due to the continuous exploitation of these category of officials for the last more than ten years..

Notwithstanding our claim for creation of a separate cadre of System Administrators (System Assistant) with GP 4200, we request the Administration side to consider the following proposal of the staff side:

(a)   At present there is no sanctioned posts of System Administrators and services of officials working in sanctioned posts of Postal Assistant/Sorting Assistant (PA/SA) in various offices are utilized as System Administrators, keeping the PA/SA post vacant. The PA/SA posts already kept vacant due to deputation as System Administrators may be redeployed and converted as Posts for accommodating System Administrators (in the PA cadre itself). This is suggested as matching savings. An amount of 15% special allowance may be sanctioned to the officials who are performing the duties of System Administrators in those redeployed post.

(b)   The official working as SA may be granted eligible promotions in the general line as and when due.

5.      MARKETING EXECUTIVES:

Notwithstanding our demand for creation of separate posts for marketing Executives in GP 4200 we request to create separate PA Posts for marketing Executives on redeployment and grant special allowance to the officials working in those posts. (this is suggested as matching savings).

6.      CHANGE OF NOMENCLATURE:

As already explained by us the present nomenclature for supervisory post viz: - LSG, HSG-II, HSG-I does not exhibit the nature of status of the officials holding the posts to the customers and public and it require change.

7.      SBCO STAFF:

In the case of SBCO Staff the following proposal is submitted.

Present Designation	Proposed Designation	MACPs		Proposed Scale of Pay
PA (SBCO)	Auditor (Entry   Level)	-	5200-20200	GP-2800
		MACPS-I	9300-34800	GP-4200
		MACPS-II	9300-34800	GP-4600
		MACPS-III	9300-34800	GP-4800
LSG (Supervisor	Sr. Auditor	-	9300-34800	GP-4200
HSG-II (Sr. Supervisor)	Chief Auditor	-	9300-34800	GP-4600
HSG-I (Chief Supervisor)	Executive Auditor	-	9300-3480	GP-4800
-	Chief Executive Auditor	-	9300-34800	GP-5400

8.      POSTMEN STAFF/MAIL GUARD:

In the case of Postmen/Mail Guard Staff as already suggested by us percentage promotion may be granted and the same may run concurrently with MACP as in the case of staff car drivers of MMS.

9.      MULTI TASKING STAFF:

As the nature of duties of MTS Staff in Post offices/RMS offices is entirely different from their counterparts in other departments of Government of India, we reiterate our request for bringing MTS Staff also under the purview of Cadre Review.

10.  MATCHING SAVINGS:

(a)   Even after the above cadre review proposals are implemented none of the existing officials will be benefited-financially as more number of officials are available under MACP in the Grade pay of 2800, 4200 and 4600 to work against the upgraded posts of 2800, 4200 & 4600 because of MACP-I, II & III. At present there are 26000 MACP II officials and 12000 MACP III officials in the Department of Posts. Even after upgradation as above, more number of officials will be getting MACP-I, II and III, much earlier than their normal promotion to grade pay 2800, 4200 & 4600 (LSG, HSG II and HSG-I). Hence the question of matching savings does not arise at all.

(b)   6% posts in operative cadre and 20% posts in supervisory cadre was reduced as a matching savings when TBOP, BCR scheme was in force. The TBOP/BCR scheme has been scrapped on introduction of MACP scheme. Directorate has issued orders for restoration of justified posts without 6% and 20% cut. But no posts are sanctioned or restored. The cut still remains. If at all any matching savings is required, the above fact may be taken into account and the posts yet to be restored may be adjusted as matching savings.