Post Office employee union urges government to reduce strength in offices as Covid-19 cases rise

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Post office employees have urged the Centre to reduce the number of staff in a post office after more than 1,000 employees tested positive for the virus. Post office employees union office bearers told Money9 that unlike bank employees unions they have not asked for truncated working hours.

They have requested that only 30% employees attend post offices in areas where the situation is critical. In states, where the situation is relatively less grave, 50% employees should attend office, unions have said.

“Already at least 1,000 of our colleagues have tested COVID-19 positive. But the government is not taking the matter seriously. We have demanded reduction of staff in the service offices (post office). In this situation there should not be more than 50 staff at all in post offices,” said R N Parashar, secretary general of National Federation of Postal Employees (NFPE).

There are 154,965 post offices in the country, which makes the Indian postal network the largest in the world. On an average, a post office serves an area of 21.56 sq km and population of 7,753 people.

Covid-19 impact

According to Janardhan Majumder, West Bengal state secretary of NFPE, on an average 2 to 3 postal employees are infected in the state every day.

“Till date at least 100 postal staff have tested positive in this state. Most of the infections are reported from urban areas like Kolkata. We have demanded a maximum 50% attendance in all offices all over the state,” said Janardhan Majumder, adding that the authorities are yet to meet our demand.

Incidentally, bank employees have also requested the government to truncate business hours between 10 am and 2 pm. A few states such as Delhi, Gujarat, Kerala and Chhattisgarh have already truncated banking hours till 2 pm.

Postal union office bearers said that alternative attendance measures are already taken in administrative offices of the postal department.

A record single-day rise of 3,46,786 coronavirus cases pushed India’s tally of infection to 1,66,10,481, while active cases crossed the 25-lakh mark, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on April 24.