Self-serving trade union culture has to be changed

Post Master General (PMG) Ruwan Sathkumara said on Friday that postal workers have fraudulently obtained overtime payments worth millions of rupees and that he is deeply embarrassed by the fraudulent and inefficient actions of some postal service officials.

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Participating in a ceremony held at the Haputale Post Office to coincide with Postal Day, he said not adhering to new regulations to mark attendance through fingerprint machines has aggravated the issue.

The Postal chief related some interesting stories about the institution under his own watch. “They service vehicles on Sundays. They do it to get overtime payments. They are paid four hours of overtime to service a vehicle. Ten people claim overtime payments. So imagine how many vehicles like this will be serviced.”

Then he narrated another incident which is ludicrous, but points to the degeneration the state institutions have slipped into. PMG Sathkumara said: “A telegram was sent to the Higher Education Ministry on September 2 from Pilimathalawa. It went there on October 3.”

It must be recalled, alongside this lamentation by the Post Master General, that the postal workers launched a trade union action in August over 19 demands including one against the instalment of finger print machines to mark attendance. In the face of the government's tough response, they backed down.