Kathmandu, January 28
The government has proposed to eliminate the permanent posts of about 1,700 postal employees through the Organization and Management (O&M) survey.
In the budget of the current financial year 2023/24, the government announced that the district and locality and additional post offices will be terminated and post offices will be established at each local level. According to this announcement, postal directorates including district and area post offices have been restructured and permanent posts have been reviewed.
The budget had announced that the existing structure and posts of public administration would be reviewed and streamlined. “Related ministries and agencies will have to complete the organisation and management survey within November of the next financial year,” the budget statement said.
According to this, an official of the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration said that preparations have been completed to eliminate the post office through the organisation and management survey. “Around 1,675 jobs are about to be cut off,” said the official, “We are sending a proposal to the Cabinet to eliminate the positions from non-gazetted second-class permanent employees to officers levels.”
There are more than 17,000 posts in the postal service. Among them, there are more than 6,000 permanent posts. About 1,700 permanent positions are to be cut.
The government is going to reorganise 862 local post offices and establish one local-level post office in 676 local-level positions. The district offices in 77 district headquarters are going to manage the postal work at the same local level. Post offices are being managed by various post offices, including the present area post office, in the post offices that will be restructured.
Apart from this, 3,740 additional post offices across the country will also be terminated. When those offices are terminated, about 10,800 people including postal representatives, letter distributors and couriers will be dismissed from service. There are no full-time employees in these three types of posts. In addition to these positions, the government is preparing to leave the post office employees with benefits. There is a preparation to amend the Additional Postal Regulations 2017 to terminate the additional offices.
However, postal employees working there are dissatisfied after terminating the office and removing the posts. As they have filed a case in court, there is pressure on the government to release them with good facilities.
Since 1999, the government has stopped recruiting permanent employees in postal/light duty and office assistant positions. Due to the decrease in the work pressure in the post office, there are no employees in some posts even though there are vacancies.
