ANNOUNCEMENT RE GRANT.......ALLOWANCE TO WORKERS 51
has taken any decision which can be said to be irretrievable, irrevocable, unamendable.
Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra: Is there a good conduct allowance ?
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : I think it is in the Postal Department that the concession has been given. With regard to meagreness and the inadequacy, the matter as I say, is still open and it may be considered at the proper time.
Coming to the second accusation, namely, that the Government did not consult the representatives of trade unions, I think it is necessary to bear in mind that in the first place there are some difficulties in the matter of establishing contract with labour. The difficulty is this. As my Honourable friend, Mr. Jamnadas Mehta, knows, so far as the railways are concerned, there are Unions, which Unions have been federated into a single organisation and it makes matters quite easy for the Government to establish contact with workers on the Railways to obtain their opinion and to consult them whenever occasion for consultation arises. That, I think, Mr. Jamnadas Mehta will admit that the Government have been doing. In fact the convention has already been established and has been practised without any departure that the Railway Board and the Railwaymen’s Federation meet twice a year to discuss matters of common concern.
Then, Sir, under the Central Government there are employees of the Posts and Telegraph Department. As I understand, there are twelve Unions which represent the posts and telegraph workers of the Central Government. Out of them four are Unions representing the higher officers and eight represent the union of workers. Unfortunately there is no single body, no Federation of the different workers of the Posts and Telegraph Department and consequently it has not been possible to establish the same sort of contact which it is possible for the Railway Board to establish with the Railwaymen’s Federation. But I do like to point out the fact that notwithstanding this difficulty the Government had as a matter of fact contact with the posts and telegraph workers before taking action. I should like to read to the House a short paragraph from a magazine called the Telegraph Review for January, 1943, which records the attempts made by the Posts and Telegraph Department to establish contact with the workers in the Posts and Telegraph. This is what the Review says :
“During his recent visit to Calcutta, the Director General invited
the representatives of the different recognised service Unions and