Post office rules OK

Our telephone service is a national sick joke. The postal service isn't much better. It's hard to open a newspaper without reading about another strike. Victorian attitudes to staff relations mean that things are going to get worse. By Liam O'Toole

THERE CAN'T BE many employers who give their workers written perrmission to wear a shamrock on St. Patrick's Day. Or lay down the preecise circumstances in which they can partake in Christmas raffles. Or reequire a written request from workers who wish to use the toilet during working hours. Not many employers. Just one of the biggest in Ireland, the Department of Posts and Telegraphs.

Telephonists at the exchange in St. Andrew's Street, Dublin, staged a walk-out one night in June 1974, claiming 'oppressive supervision' and alleging that visits to the toilet were subject to the permission of the night supervisor who insisted that each man sign a special form. So? A minor eruption, a petty example of infantile bureaucracy? No. It was one of the many examples of P&T workers rattling their chains.

Step up and meet Staff Rules (RG 17). This squat little book with its multiple appendices and compreehensive index (in which turning off water taps is covered twice: 'Economy in use of water', and 'Water, economy in use of'), is the bedrock on which rests P&T industrial relations. P&T workers must also take note of other 'rule books relating to particular duties'. Postmen, for example, should read this book in conjunction with Rules For Postmen . The Post Office engineers, 100 of whom were the victims of an orgy of suspensions arising from the Telex dispute, are covered by Engineering Branch Regulations.

An outsider could spend many happy hours reading aloud from these documents in a clipped-voice imitation of John Cleese. P&T workers don't see the joke. Imagine 1984 rewritten by a committee of civil servants. For a start, the workers who gave us access to the rules and regulations are forrbidden to do so by several rules. Reecourse to the media is strictly forrbidden, under pain of suspension.

Apart from the 'normal' prohibition of public employees taking any overt political stance, P&T workers are forbidden to write to newspapers 'on any matter of current political interest'. They may not wear badges or emblems. This applies even to teleephonists hidden away in an exchange. There are 54 rules in RG 17 dealing specifically With Discipline and Connduct. Many more of the 'ordinary' rules also invite suspension if they are transgressed. Union representatives, for instance, may not call an onjob meeting without permission. They cannot put up a notice without perrmission. Such a notice must be 'exxpressed in non-controversial terms'. (Rule 14c RG 17). Those speaking at a meeting are aware that they 'will be held responsible for statements made which are considered to be detrimental or injurious to the innterests of the Department. '(Rule 14b RG 17).

A recognised union or staff assocciation (the rules never use the word 'union') may not amend any of its own rules without informing the Minister. Should the Minister decide that the changes are 'substantial', recognition will be immediately withhdrawn. This stricture is part of the inaptly named 'Conciliation and Arbiitration Scheme' which is part and parcel of RG 17. This scheme does not allow the right to strike. Deciisions are binding on the workers, not on the Department.

Even where RG 17 is not explicitly prohibitive, it is intimidating. The comprehensive nature of the rules is breathtaking. They even instruct workers on where private cars should not be parked. 'Not ... near wooden structures or other inflammable material' (Rule 25). Workers being transferred from one town to another are informed that they cannot claim expenses for 'cost of tuning pianos and regulating clocks.' The alllembracing nature of the rules turns a job of work into a potential mineefield. They have not been. rewritten since 1961, and enquiries for an uppto-date version have been met for the past three years with the reply °that 'they are being rewritten'.

And they are enforced. This is clearly visible from the num ber of. stoppages directly related to - 'discipline'. A rash of walk-outs and 24 hour stoppages have occured due to suspensions of telephonists for breakking minor rules. Postmen went on unofficial strike earlier this year when 40 of their workmates were suspended. Last year 2,000 P&T workers struck for three weeks following the suspennsion of 39. (This was over the parking of cars. See Rule 25 above.)

Suspension is the almost automatic response when absolute authority is challenged. Routine breaches of discipline (defined as Minor or Major Irregularities, as opposed to Serious Offences) are noted and filed. This can result in increments being deferred. It will certainly affect the promotional opporrtunities of the worker. On top of all this, the complex regulations and ground for patronage, favouritism and victimisation.

The Engineering Branch Regulation (EBR) are, if anything, even more blunt. In between vetoing such connduct as 'betting or gambling in any form'(EBR 385/8) and lending money to a 'superior officer', the words 'punishment inflicted' are used with chilling casualness and regularity.

A worker accused of a Serious Offence (it could be insubordination) 'should not be allowed to go on annual leave until the case has been settled and punishment inflicted; and if such an offence comes to light whilst an officer is on annual leave, there is no objection to his recall from leave.'

Rule 361 demands that Discipline Records be kept. You're not going to believe the next bit. 'Serious Offences will be entered in red ink. Major Irregularities will be entered in black ink. Commendations will be efltered in blue ink.'

And you wonder what's wrong with the phone service?

The grown men and women whose work holds together the country's communication system are being dissciplined and harassed by a bureauucracy that, from the Minister down, adds the insult of indignity to the injury of exploitation. Consider the indignity of Rule 384, headed 'Immorallity': 'All cases of immoral relations between two P.O. servants, or immoral conduct on P.O. premises should be reported'. 'Immorality', like 'insuborddination', 'controversial' etc., are, of course, defined by the Department's represen ta tives,

It is against this background that industrial disputes in the Department of Posts and Telegraphs must be seen. And the wonder is that there are not more. Decisions taken by most manageements, such as dodging equal pay or imposing new work practices, are carried through in the Post Office with the same arrogance that drew up 15 separate rules, totalling over 1,000 words to deal with 'Intemperance.'.

Management's openly contemptuous attitude is unlikely to change volunntarily. And most of the P&T union structures are so compromised as to make unofficial rank and file action inevitable. The majority of workers belong to the Staff Association, the P.O.W.U., (whose officials' wages are paid by the Department), and are actively discouraged from joining any other union.

So, if your phone goes dead or the postman doesn't knock, listen carefully. You may be hearing the rattling of chains. Trends are such that those with a little money to invest in the coming period might anticipate a buoyant carrier-pigeon market.