India Post outsourced employees fear being gradually sidelined

A union of outsourced employees of the India Post in Maharashtra’s Pune Division are fighting a first-of-its-kind battle to earn their right to the social security scheme of Provident Fund (PF), of which they have been deprived. After a thorough proceeding responding to their demands, the Regional PF office has determined that the office of Post Master General would be liable to pay outstanding dues of over Rs 7 crore, once an order for the same is issued. However, the very employees who led the fight to earn all outsourced employees the right to PF for the first time in the country now say that they have not been called to work for over a month, thus fearing loss of livelihood.

“We work in the RMS unit of India Post as outsourced employees. In 2023, we began our struggle to get PF. The proceedings began last year. Since then, we have been facing harassment from our seniors. Things became worse in the second half of 2024, when our case began growing stronger,” said one of the outsourced employees, who is also a part of the All India Dak Outsourced Employees Union.

During this period, the Union carried out demonstrations against this harassment as well as other demands.

“They began targeting us when we gave them the letter regarding the case that had been filed for our PF demand. They were not even aware of that before we took  One of our first demonstrations for the recovery of our delayed payments, especially those of the overtime work that we did. It was through our demonstrations that we received the pending payments. Similarly, we noticed that they stopped calling us on duty as frequently as before, when we started this fight for our rights. The break days between our duty days were more, none of us were given full duty anymore. So we carried out demonstrations for work as well,” the employee said.

But they say that the work stopped completely on March 11, after a new officer took charge as Superintendent. Most of the unionised outsourced employees, who said they would be called to work at the Railway Mail Service (RMS) department at least four times every fortnight, now say that they have not been called to work even once since March 11.

“On March 11, an officer at the RMS retired and another officer took his place. The day she took charge, she stopped calling these workers for work, especially those who had participated in demonstrations. There are at least 125 workers who have been deprived of work for the last whole month,” said CITU leader and advisor to the union Ajit Abhyankar. The All India Dak Outsourced Employees Union is a part of CITU.

When contacted about the same, BP Erande, Superintendent RMS B Division, said that the workers have not been called for work as there is no requirement for them.

“We had a recruitment drive of permanent employees, wherein we filled in employees for the duties that these outsourced employees carried out. Thus, we do not have enough work for them, however, we do call them in, whenever required. Some of them are still coming to work,” he told Indie Journal, while adding that it was difficult to confirm exactly how many employees were being called to work at the moment.

However, the outsourced employees have alleged that the RMS recruited permanent staff only after their battle for PF began, as a retaliation.

Who are the outsourced employees?

The outsourced employees are the workers hired directly by the India Post, to work as required. The workers said that they are not employed through a contractor for a fixed period of time. Many of them were also recruited through informal hiring methods like Social Media advertisements or through reference of an existing employee.

“There are two types of workers amidst us: unskilled and semi-skilled. We majorly work in the Railway Mailing Service unit. Unskilled employees carry out the work of loading and unloading mail from the train. The semi-skilled employees scan the barcode and sort the mail according to the address. Unskilled workers get paid a minimum wage of Rs 97 per hour, while the semi-skilled are paid at Rs 108 per hour,” an outsourced employee said on condition of anonymity.

As per a submission made by the union to the Enforcement Officer of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), these employees have been termed as ‘casual workers’ and recruited on daily wager basis because the existing workload cannot be completed by the ‘permanent workers’ of the department.

“The tenure of appointment is not mentioned while appointing them. They are paid fortnightly as per the days worked including hours of work,” the submission said.

The employees also alleged that at the time of hiring, they are made to sign a letter that states that they will not ask to be made permanent, not ask for benefits like PF or ESIC and so on. Indie Journal could not independently verify this claim.

Many of these outsourced employees are working for close to or over a decade now.

However, Erande maintained that the workers have only been called on a requirement-basis, only when the RMS does not have sufficient numbers of employees to handle the workload. “For instance, when we have highly sensitive mail like that of JEE answer sheets, we need additional workers to handle the load,” he said.

The battle for PF

This is the first instance in the entire country that the outsourced employees of the postal department have demanded for social security benefits under PF.

“The complaint demanding for PF payment for these outsourced employees was filed in 2024, but the proceedings began in June 2024. We made sure that they finished all the required proceedings by December 2024. On March 15, 2025, everything was finalised and it was almost confirmed that they will get PF,” said Vasant Pawar, Vice President, All India Dak Outsourced Employees Union.

The document of the case proceedings, signed by Enforcement Officer at EPFO Manojkumar Asrani, states that the preliminary inspection recommended that the establishment, M/S Postmaster General, was coverable under EPF and MP Act. In the same document, the EPFO has determined an amount of Rs 7,23,38,780 to be the outstanding dues under section 7A of the EPF and MP Act.

“The amount could increase further if they also count interest for the period of 2015 to 2024 as well as penalty,” Pawar said.

The order to enforce the same, which was due on Tuesday, April 15, has not yet been passed and the hearing for the same has been pushed to Tuesday, April 22.

Deprivation of work

While the workers might have successfully convinced the EPFO authorities, their struggle intensified as the Regional PF Commissioner took cognisance of the case. The employees said that their harassment began.

“We were taunted for taking a leave, not given duties in particular departments, made to pay bribes, etc.,” an employee said on condition of anonymity. Eventually, the work became more and more scarce, they said, eventually completely stopping from March 15.

However, with no work for over a month and no reassurance for any in near future, has left the outsourced employees worrying about their livelihood more than ever.

"All we did is protest for our rights, is it so wrong? Why are we being punished for it," an employee questioned, as she shared what loss of work could mean for these outsourced workers.

“Most of us are not from Pune, we have been living here in rented homes. We will be unable to pay our rents, if we lose this work. I have a personal loan to repay, for which I completely depend on this job. Then there are day-to-day expenses, children’s school fees, we also need to send money to the family back home. How are we going to manage all that, if we are not called to work?” an employee added.

“If we are not called to work, I will have no other option but to end my life,” said the employee who has worked at the RMS unit as an outsourced employee for over 10 years now.

Moreover, these workers have also alleged that they have not been paid for overtime since their demand for PF.

Many of the employees, the union’s general secretary says, are in their middle age. “Who is going to hire us now if we lose out on this work? We have no other work experience, and we are not sure they will even give us anything like an experience letter,” he added.

However, he said that the employees have still not lost their hopes and are trying to hold meetings with their Superintendent to resolve this issue.

What did the union do?

“There were just 150 employees in the union at first. One of our first struggles was for receiving pending payment, for the minimum wage arrears from the year 2021 to 2022. Each employee got around rs 10 to 12 thousand. After that, more outsourced employees joined us,” said the general secretary of the union.

The union was formed in 2022. At the time, the employees were paid the minimum wages determined by the state government, instead of those decided by the Central Government, even though these employees came under the purview of the latter. With Union’s effort, the minimum wages were increased from around Rs 86 to Rs 97 (unskilled) and Rs 108 (semi-skilled).

“After this success, more employees joined. Now the union has around 338 employees working in the RMS B Division that includes Pune, Solapur, Ahmednagar and Latur districts.

The union also fought to get identity cards issued for the employees. “Earlier, there was no document to verify that these employees were part of the RMS division. If one of them were to get stopped by the police while on the railway station platform to pick up the mail, they had no document to prove that they were an outsourced employee. Hence we followed up on this issue and these employees were issued temporary ID cards for three months,” Abhyankar said.

However, after those ID cards expired, they have not been re-issued, as the officer in-charge of them changed.