News
Mail pile up: Devilry but no delivery
Slow service: People line up at the post office in Kotahena. Pix by Anuradha Bandara and Athula Devapriya
With despondency written large on her face, 18-year-old Thirumularly Raj Gavisia was standing outside the desolated counters of the Kotahena Post Office. The reason: She could not send her entry for a competition in time because of the postal strike.
“I managed to find the stamps, but the officials are not accepting my letter,” Gavisia told The Sunday times.
Postal workers launched islandwide trade union action from midnight last Sunday, paralyising postal services. Described as a work-to-rule campaign, their protests have led to the piling of more than one million letters — among them urgent letters, job applications and vital documents.
Gavisia said even if she was able to send the application through an agency post office, it would be held up because it had to be taken through the state postal service eventually for distribution.
As Gavisia waited at the post office counter, an official yelled, “There is no use of waiting here. Even if we accept your letter, it won’t be delivered, as our work-to-rule campaign is on.
The work-to-rule campaign was eventually called off on Friday, after negotiations with the Government, but not before millions of people were inconvenienced by the trade union action.
Even parents who came to post applications for the admission of their children to schools were turned away or kept waiting until some official turned up to register the letters.
Lasantha Kumara, a man who waited three hours at the Kotahena Post Office said that he had to go eventually go to the Aluth Mawatha post office to buy some stamps and then come back to Kotahena to send his letter by registered post. But even then he had to wait, because the officials had seemingly gone for an extra-long lunch.
At Colombo’s General Post Office, there were only a few officials during the work-to-rule campaign. Most people were turned away by a post office employee who said letters or parcels would not be accepted or delivered.
Induwara Bandara, a third year university student of the Jayawardenapura University said he was sitting there for about three hours to collect a parcel sent by a friend after coming from Badulla. He was told they would not release the parcel. He said he had wasted three hours of university study time amid so-called public servants who were harassing and ill-treating those they were expected to serve.
The postal unions resumed normal work on Friday after they reached an agreement with the Government on some of their 14 demands but they have vowed to resume the trade union action if the other demands were not met.
United Postal Trade Union Front Convenor Chinthaka Bandara said Post Minister M.H. Abdul Haleem had agreed on a new procedure for recruiting employees and said he would submit a cabinet paper to secure overtime benefits.
He said the unions made 14 demands but the earlier government did not consider them.
“We won two of our main demands and the Minister agreed to meet the other demands within two weeks,” he said.
Mrs Bandara said the other demands included the renovation of the Postal Department buildings, recruitment of post masters and postmen and the purchase of vehicles for deliveries.
The unions also demand promotions through exams, salary increases and loans to buy motorcycles.
Minister Haleem said he understood the grievances of postal workers but it would take about two months to meet their demands.
Mail bags pile up at the Colombo General Post Office