Central strike from July 11 likely to be deferred, Union is waiting Govt. assurance

Indian Military Veterans

The proposed indefinite strike of Central Govt. employees in protest of "negligible increase" of salary may be deferred for some time. National Joint Council of Action, the umbrella body of Central associations will decide the fate of strike on Tuesday. 

"They have fixed the minimum wage at a meagre Rs 18,000 in the 7th Pay Commission. In the last Pay Commission, the basic pay was Rs 7,000. They multiplied it by 2.57 (fitment formula) and came to Rs 18,000. We are demanding 3.68 fitment formula," Shivgopal Mishra, General Secretary, All India Railway Men Federation and Convenor of National Joint Council of Action (NJCA), toldIANS.

"As many as 33 lakh government employees, excluding the defence personnel, will go on strike if we do not get some kind of assurance from the government to reconsider the decision. The major contention is on the minimum wage, which we are demanding to be Rs 26,000," KKN Kutty, President of CCGE and general secretary of national coordination committee of pensioners association, told IANS.

"We had a meeting with a group of ministers, including the Home Minister (Rajnath Singh), Finance Minister (Arun Jaitley) and Railway Minister (Suresh Prabhu) on the evening of June 30. They said it will be considered and will be referred to some committee," said Mishra.

"We are waiting to hear back on this from the government by July 4 evening or July 5. In our meeting, it was only a verbal commitment. If the government gives us specific details like which committee will review, etc. then we will defer the strike. We have a meeting on July 5 to decide on the strike," Kutty said.

However while the fate of the strike is still unknown, a central government junior staffer on the condition of anonymity told IANS: "I don't think much will come out of the strike. The only thing the government might do is increase the allowances slightly, that's it."

The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the parent body of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, has also expressed its "dissatisfaction" at the 7th Pay Commission's recommendations.

"A huge gap has been created between the minimum and the maximum wage after the government approved the Seventh Pay Commission Report's recommendation," BMS general secretary Virjesh Upadhyay told IANS earlier.

However, BMS is not expected to go on strike as it is not a part of the NJCA.

The Union Cabinet has decided to constitute three separate committees, including one to look into the anomalies likely to arise out of enforcement of the commission's report.

Source : Business Standard