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Postal staff strike declared illegal

Our bureau

NEW DELHI, Dec. 14

THE ten-day-old strike by employees of the Postal department has been declared illegal by the Government. The postal federations have been on indefinite strike since December 5.

An official release today said ``the strike is rendered illegal according to the provisions of Section 22 of the Industrial Disputes Act''.

According to the Section no person employed in a public utility service shall go on strike in breach of contract during the pendency of conciliation proceedings before the conciliation officer and seven days after conclusion of the conciliation proceedin gs, the release said.

In another communication to the striking federations, the Deputy Chief Labour Commissioner (central) who is the conciliation officer has said ``your action to cease work in a concerted manner from Dec. 5 during the pendency of conciliation proceedings re nders the strike illegal''.

He appealed to the unions to call off the strike to restore normalcy and create a favourable atmosphere for talks across the table.

The postal employees have struck work demanding more pay and a change in nomenclature for the nearly 3.5 lakh extra departmental agents and a social security system after the age of 65. While the Government is willing to concede a few, it was not ready t o give the pension to these 3.5 lakh agents stating that similar demands could come from other part-time staff such as anganwadi workers and Sathins.

The Delhi High Court had yesterday issued directions asking both the unions and the Government to find solutions to end the strike within two days.