Tangedco proposes 5% hike for staff after 3-year gap, fails to impress unions

CHENNAI: After a three-year gap, Tangedco has begun talks on wage revision and proposed a hike of 5%, but only to those coming under the ambit of the Industrial Disputes Act. The utility has sought employees’ views in this regard.

This is the first time Tangedco has discussed implementing the pay scale of the Tamil Nadu government for employees to be recruited in future and its outsourcing policy. A Sekizhar, general secretary of TNEB employee’s federation, told TNIE that the last wage revision expired on November 30, 2019, and a new one should have come into effect on December 1, 2019. Talks were currently on regarding this. “The 5% hike isn’t acceptable; we will negotiate during the next talk,” he said.

R Murali Krishnan, state organising secretary of BMS (electricity wing), on the other hand, said Government Order (GO) 100, which ensured continuation of benefits to employees through a tripartite agreement, was the only way to avoid obstacles. Despite repeated requests, however, the GO was yet to be introduced. About outsourcing, he said that though Tangedco had decided to introduce an outsourcing policy, it was yet to state it clearly. 

“If Tangedco outsources essential services such as power cable repair, it will be impossible to maintain quality standards. As such, the utility must discuss this with employees before implementing an outsourcing policy. Core works (generation points and maintenance) cannot be outsourced,” he said, adding that if the state government implemented GO 100, BMS was ready to talk about the outsourcing policy and wage revision, not otherwise.

Tangedco, which has accumulated a debt of Rs 1.59 lakh crore , is also planning to identify and abolish unlisted posts to reduce cost. A senior government officer said a committee had been formed to identify temporary posts lying vacant for the past five years. Several states, including Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra, had already outsourced works, and Tangedco was planning to do so to make itself profitable.