Although 23,000 needed, only 17,000 in cadre:

Postal services hit by labour shortage

by Naalir Jamaldeen

Telemails are faster than telegrams. The Postal Department which is running at a loss can be made a profitable institution or even brought to break even point by introducing modern services, Postmaster General D.P.L. Rohana Abeyratne told the Sunday Observer.

He said we cannot depend on traditional services alone to drive growth.

Telemails are also used by the same people who use telegram. Telemails are being used by the Government and the private sector employees.

"Telegrams were a reliable source of communication before the expansion of telecommunication services and the emergence of mobile phones", Abeyratne said.

"Telegrams were a vital mode of communication for over 200 years, since the introduction of postal services in Sri Lanka.

Telegrams were used to convey urgent and important messages. It was used to send official documents and greetings.

Telemails also provides the same services to customers", he said.

Telegrams in the UK are either hand delivered by the Personal Messenger Delivery Service, or by the first class post, in the officially branded telegram envelope and paper.

"A telemail has the same features of a telegram such as uniqueness, excellent response rate, official document, legal status, professional image and personal messenger delivery", he said.

The telegram service had been an important service provided by the Postal Department to rural folk until the introduction of telemails.

It had been the only reliable mode of communication of the village.

"A Postal Department survey revealed that villagers preferred the telegram service and gave prominence to it.

"There were practical problems in operating telegrams. People were not aware who was the owner of the service. It belonged to the Sri Lanka Telecom. The Postal Department did the delivery. When the Postal Department and Sri Lanka Telecom functioned under one ministry such issues did not arise.

The Postal Department did not benefit from the telegram service, he said.

"The Department deployed nearly 1,200 employees to deliver telegrams and paid their salaries", he said.

"Telegram services were stopped with the introduction of telemails. Today it is accepted as an effective mode of communication in the country", he said.

"There is currently a need for 23,000 employees in the Postal Department but it is manned by only 17,000 employees.

The Postal Delivery Department requires 8,000 employees but there are only 6,000 at present.

Hence there is a shortage of 2,000 employees in this division", Postmaster General Abeyratne said.

Employees who were delivering telegrams are being used for telemail delivery and other services. A solution can be found to overcome the shortage through this mechanism.

Overtime payments can also be minimised as a result.

He said, "certain villagers are illiterate. It is the responsibility of the Postal Department to provide facilities.The Postal Department plans to introduce services to facilitate the use of telemails. The others could use the tele-fax service which will be introduced soon.

"'The staff have been instructed to provide a satisfactory service to customers. We can sustain the operation only by providing a satisfactory services. The employees have been trained to deal with customers in a friendly manner", Abeyratne said.

Abeyratne said the Department carried advertisements on the special features of telemails such as the e-code which telegrams had.

"Though a telegram cost around Rs. 250 we charged Rs.15.

The Postal Department is not a profit making organisation. We are service providers but we have certain services through which we make profits. We could make profits through value added and agency services, Abeyratne said.

Now we have expanded our courier service which had been limited to the Colombo. We have commenced courier service in Nuwara-Eliya, Kandy, Badulla, Kurunegala and Jaffna as a pilot project, Abeyratne said.