30th January 2000

MAIL MESS

By Faraza Farook and Tania Fernando

Many Sri Lankans still awaiting Christmas or New Year greetings from their friends and relatives, from here and abroad are in for a rude shock. It would be the same for those awaiting important letters or foreign cheques from their relatives to keep their home fires burning.

These are probably among the mail that has been piling up at the Central Mail Exchange (CME). "Last months presidential elections, Christmas, New Year, curfew and other holidays have all contributed to this," says Soma Kotakadeniya, Post Master General. She said the situation should clear up in a few weeks.

But the Union of Post and Telecommunication Officers (UPTO) which counts as its members, employees of the CME says, this has been going on and will continue. A union spokesman said the reason for the accumulation was a reported shortage of staff of about 5000. Repeated requests to fill the vacancies have been futile.

This situation will be further aggravated when the UPTO launches a strike this week Union officials said. The disruption in the postal service is over unresolved demands for an improved postal system, the union says. The UPTO disappointed with the current management warns that this strike would have a severe impact on the whole postal service.

To meet the 24,000 staff requirement, the 5000 vacant positions in all grades, need to be filled said UPTO spokesman, N.P. Hetti-arachchi. Promotions are also said to be outstanding since 1992.

UPTO claims the department was unable to adhere to the next days delivery of letters due to the shortfall of employees.

Telegrams which are supposed to be delivered within a day, now takes days. While telegrams are categorised into two sectors, ordinary and urgent, Mr. Hetti-arachchi said, there is no difference when compared to a normal delivery of a letter.

However, Mrs. Kotaka-deniya said the department wasn't suffering from a cadre shortage except for the fact that there were a few senior posts vacant. In the event of minor employees going on leave, the department has registered substitutes who carry out the duty, she said.

Meanwhile a spokesman for UPTO expressed disappointment with the present PMG and alleged there were 31 allegations against her."Favouritism plays a major role in the extension of services while transfers are influenced.

The PMG refuses to entertain trade union representation. There is no employer - employee relationship," he said.

An interesting section of the CME is the Returned Letters Office (RLO) which receives some 8000 returned letters from all over the island on a daily basis.

These letters are returned mostly due to illegible hand writing, incorrect addresses, change of address and unacceptance at the place of delivery, says Raja Wickremesinghe, Superintendent of the CME.

The returned ordinary letters are destroyed after a about six months and registered letters after one year. In the event of someone not receiving a letter or parcel, it is possible for them to visit the CME and look for it, he said.

The letters, before being torn, are opened and checked for valuables such as cheques and currency notes. If it has not been claimed during the stipulated period, the money goes to the government revenue.

The returned letters contain both foreign and local letters. But a large number of them are from West Asia. The RLO advised that the sender whose knowledge of English may not be that good could write the address in either Sinhala or Tamil but the country name in English. This may help in a less number being destroyed.

All returned mails go to the paper corporation while returned parcels are sold at a public auction.

Parcels which are opened in the presence of the Customs and CME officials contain mostly CDs, books, video cassesttes, clothes, food items such as chocolates and pickles. While the food items are destroyed all other items are auctioned to the public, after a government gazette.

The CME receives a total of 700,000 letters of which 400,000 are transit letters, the balance 300,000 letters are for Colombo delivery. The 450 sorters who work on three shifts 24-hours a day are expected to sort out 1000 letters within one hour.

With a strike likely to be launched even tomorrow, what would become to all these letters is the question.

The 17 demands put forward at the last trade union action in 1998 which lasted 57 days remains unresolved despite assurances by the Posts and Telecommunications minister, the UPTO claimes.

However the Secretary to the Ministry S.M.J. Senaratne said he was unaware of these assurances and allegations.

The main demand of the UPTO is to stop the attempt to privatise the posts department. Closing of post offices on Sundays and public holidays, withdrawal of right to work overtime and doing away with quarter hour or half an hour overtime payment are some of the other demands.

"The disruption to be launched this week will be joined by other trade unions and would cripple the entire postal sector," he said.

There have been incidents in the past where undelivered letters were found on the beach, allegedly thrown by the postman. As such, is there a chance once again of 'snail mail' turning into 'sea mail'.

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