The all-India indefinite strike launched by the Gramin Dak Seva (GDS) workers of the Postal Department began on Wednesday. The GDS employees in the various parts of the country sat on the dharna and raised slogans against the union government.

Besides GDS workers, nearly 3 lakh employees of National Federation of Postal Employee’s Union (NFPE) had also joined the nation-wide strike. The main demand of the agitated GDS workers is that they should be given all benefits of the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission.

The workers demand that they should be treated on a par with the central government employees, and should be paid on a par with postal employees working in cities. Along with this, GDS members also want the cancellation of the recommendations of the Natrajan Murti Committee report, considered as “anti- employees”.

While speaking on this, Sachidananda Biswas, branch secretary, NFPE said, “The Centre claims that the GDS employees are Government employees but it hardly gives them the benefits they are entitled to. They are demanding their pension, retirement benefits, bonus, proper TDP (time related pay). We support their cause.”

“We will continue our strike unless the Central government agree to our demands. Tomorrow our representatives in Delhi will attend a meeting with the director general of the postal department and unless anything fruitful comes out of the meeting, we will continue with our agitation,” added Biswas.

It may be here recalled that almost 80 per cent of the country’s post offices are being managed by the GDS workers.