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Telangana employees to get salary for strike period

admin | October 20, 2011 | 0 Comments

Even as more Telangana employees’ unions withdrew from the Sakala Janula Samme that entered the 37th day on Wednesday, a resolution to the satisfaction of the striking staff and the state government to end the agitation was arrived at. If all goes well, the strike will be called off in the next 24 to 48 hours, sources said.

In the informal talks that the Telangana employees JAC held with the group of ministers on Wednesday, the union leaders agreed to call off the strike provided they are paid for the strike period as well.

In response, the state agreed but said in view of the directive by the AP High Court that GO 177 stipulating ‘no work no pay’ rule has to be implemented, other ways have to be explored to ensure that the employees do not lose their salaries for the strike period, said the sources. “We are working out solutions including paying them for the strike period in the form of festival advance or salary advance or adjusting the days against the leave the employees have,” they said.

However, even as a resolution is being worked out to end the strike, the Telangana Employees JAC passed a resolution after a meeting on Wednesday evening that they will call off the agitation once Prime Minister Manmohan Singh or chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy issues a statement on Telangana. “Such posturing is necessary for us to extract the maximum from the state before calling off the strike,” sources in the employees unions said.

On Wednesday, various lecturers associations called off their participation in the strike and are slated to return to their duties from Thursday. Those who called off the strike included Telangana intermediate, contract, aided, degree, technical education and polytechnic lecturers. They agreed to resume work on the assurance that the strike period is adjusted against their leaves. The lecturers called off their strike after meeting the chief minister.

With 80 per cent of the staff returning to work, Singareni Collieries on Wednesday recorded 1.2 lakh tonnes of coal production, which is its normal level. The power supply situation in the state too is retuning to normal and the AP Transco has directed all its district offices to increase the power supply to the agriculture sector to seven hours from the existing six hours.

Amid indications of an end to the people’s strike, the day began with Kiran Kumar convening a meeting with the group of ministers comprising deputy chief minister D Raja Narasimha, home minister Sabita Indra Reddy, labour minister D Nagender and horticulture minister R Venkata Reddy and discussed the steps to be taken to convince the TEJAC to call off the strike.

Subsequently, Raja Narsimha held talks with the union leaders and requested them to return to work . It was at this meeting that a compromise was worked out to the effect that the employees will be compensated for the strike period in some form in view of the high court directive. “GO 177 is the major hurdle. We have to come up with a reasonable solution so that the employees do not lose their salary for the strike period,” a minister in the cabinet sub-committee told TOI.

According to the sources, the state government has asked the advocate general to give his opinion on the TEJAC demand for salary for the strike period. Based on the opinion, the government may file a petition in the high court seeking permission to pay the salaries of the employees, they added.