As many as 17 lakh employees of the State government started their three-day strike on Tuesday, to push the government to fulfil their demands, including implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission report.
Avinash Daund, general secretary of the Maharashtra Rajya Sarkari Karmachari Madhyavarti Sanghatna, which has called the protest, said essential services in government hospitals and other departments took a hit as Class III and IV employees joined the strike.
The organisation’s president, Milind Sardeshmukh, said, “Around 17 lakh employees from various departments, including zilla parishads, teachers and State-run corporations, are taking part in the strike.” He accused the government of merely paying lip-service to their long-pending demands.
‘Only lip service’
He said government employees are yet to receive arrears accrued to them since the government implemented the Sixth Pay Commission. For the last one-and-a-half years, the government-appointed K.P. Bakshi Committee had done nothing but hold meetings with various departments to discuss the implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission’s recommendations, he said.
The Raigad district headquarters at Konkan Bhavan wears a deserted look on Tuesday. | Photo Credit: Yogesh Mhatre
“Around 1.85 lakh posts of Class III and IV employees are lying vacant. The government has also not fulfilled the demand to fill 30,000 posts on compassionate ground (jobs for kin if employee dies while on duty). Around 30 to 40% of the total posts are lying vacant in hospitals and other essential services departments,” Mr. Sardeshmukh said. The unions are also against outsourcing of jobs to the private sector and appointment of contract labourers.
On their other demands, such as raising the retirement age from 58 to 60 years, five-day work week, continuing the old pension scheme and two-year child care leave for women employees, the government has done nothing but give assurances, he said.
The State government, meanwhile, said the strike had not seen much of a response. In a statement issued late on Tuesday evening, it said that more than 70% employees attended work in Mantralaya, while elsewhere, attendance was more than 37%.
It said employees who took part in the strike will face disciplinary action for “misbehaviour”, and the Centre’s policy of ‘kaam nahi, vetan nahi (no work, no salary)’ will be followed. It warned that provisions of the Essential Services Maintenance Act will be invoked against employees of hospitals, fire brigade, water supply department and other essential services departments who join the strike.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had said last week that the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations will be implemented from January 2019.