Postal workers should focus on delivering better service to public

Thousands of postal workers are on a 48-hour strike from yesterday in opposition to the Government decision to lease the Nuwara Eliya post offices to a private developer. The strike was called by the United Postal Trade Union after Cabinet spokesman Minister Bandula Gunawardena announced plans to hand over the Nuwara Eliya Post Office to the Taj Samudra Group for a hotel project.

Gunawardena said the landmark colonial era two-storey building dating back to 1894 located in the Nuwara Eliya town is being handed over to a private developer as maintenance cost of the building is high and the Government can no longer afford the high costs.

Such Government plans are always met with stiff resistance by the country’s state sector as is seen by the ongoing strike. President Ranil Wickremesinghe last week intervened to get the release of the building expedited when he held a discussion with heads of Government agencies in Nuwara Eliya and directed them to take steps to hand over the post office building and land for a tourism project as soon as possible.

There were protests in 2017 by the postal workers when the then Government planned to hand over this post office building as well as those in Kandy and Galle to private developers and six years down the line the issue has come up again. 

There is a logic to the Government argument that the maintenance costs on these colonial period buildings are high and are not user friendly for Government offices in this day and age. They were built to accommodate a large number of personnel but with the growth in information technology, fewer people do a lot more work and post offices aren’t manned by as many people as in the past. Hence handing over these buildings to private developers makes more sense and will go a long way in preserving these buildings in their former glory. These developers will have to adhere to the Archaeological Act and do whatever changes with the consultation and relevant officials to ensure that the buildings are not torn down or altered so they don’t lose the original style of architecture.

Similar projects such as the Dutch Hospital in Fort and Arcade in Independence Square helped preserve these buildings unlike in the past when they housed Government offices and were rundown and neglected.In the meantime, the Sri Lanka Post has to focus on more important things other than persevering a couple of old buildings. There are 4,692 post offices across the country and in spite of rapid growth in IT, Sri Lankan post offices continue to work in the old, cumbersome manner. Despite claims on the official website of Sri Lanka Post, that most of its post offices are equipped with state-of-the-art equipment to provide an efficient service to its customers, this is far from the truth.

In post offices located in Colombo and its suburbs which are the big urban townships, the services are still carried out in the same way they were many decades ago. Post offices lack basic facilities such as a proper table and chairs for members of the public. There is no proper display on what services are available or the charges involved which are basic facilities that the public can expect when they visit a post office. The situation is no better in other districts.

In most countries, postal services make full use of technology to offer better service to the public. These include providing tokens to those who come to the post office and having proper seating facilities so that they can await their turn without having to stand in long queues till their turn comes. Such facilities are important as a majority of those who visit the post offices are seniors including many pensioners who must be provided with proper facilities.

So, while the post workers think it’s their responsibility to safeguard a few buildings housing the post offices, they should also focus their attention on the thousands of other post offices which may not be housed in such fancy colonial style buildings, but need the same attention so that the public get a speedy and efficient service and not the lethargic and half-hearted service they mostly get now.