The Andhra Pradesh unit of the All-India Postal Employees' Union Group ‘C’ (AIPEU) has appealed to the Central government to reconsider its decision to freeze Dearness Allowance to postal employees up to July 2021. The union members mailed their representation to the Union Finance Minister.
The decision not to pay DA arrears for the period from January 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021 was ‘unfair’ as the decision would demotivate the employees who have been working with commitment during lockdown, union State secretary B. Sridhar Babu observed. “Deferment of dearness relief to the Central government pensioners for such a long period and denial of payment for 18 months amount to treating senior citizens very unreasonably and harshly,” he said in a statement released in Tirupati on Friday.
Even as the Postal Department came in for laurels for transportation of medicines, medical kits, disbursement of pensions, conduct of savings bank transactions and delivery of essential letters, they were not paid incentives or special allowances like home guards, sanitary workers, doctors and paramedical staff who served during the lockdown period. “The 2.5 lakh Grameen Dak Sevaks, the most downtrodden and low paid employees, will be the worst hit,” said Mr. Sridhar Babu.
Similarly, Congress leader and INTUC Chittoor district president P. Naveen Kumar Reddy said the Centre’s announcement would hurt the interests of the employees, who he said, were already wilting under the pressure of lockdown. He called the decision as directly impacting the 1.30 crore employees working in postal, telecom, railway and other Central government establishments and as such demanded its immediate withdrawal.
