Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

August 7th, Tuesday marked the first day in a 3 day strike by around 17 lakh Maharashtra government employees demanding that the government implement the 7th Pay Commission.

Members of the Maharashtra State Gazetted Officers Federation, the Maharashtra State Government Employees Organisation and the Maharashtra State Class Four Employees Association threatened to go on a 3 day strike starting from August 7th for various demands including pay hike.

Chief Minister of state, Devendra Fadnavis announced on Saturday that the 7th Pay Commission would be implemented from January 2019.

The announcement is of significance since the assembly elections in Maharashtra are due next year. The implementation of the plan will impose an additional burden of Rs.21000 crore on the national treasury. As per the government estimate, Rs.4800 crores would be allocated towards implementations of the Pay Commission in the budget, Fadnavis said.

However, 1.5 lakh gazetted officers withdrew from the strike after a Government Resolution (GR) was issued on Monday night in which the pending arrears of the Dearness Allowance (DA) for a period of 14 months would be paid to them.

An official stated that the demands were for a five-day work week, and raising the retirement age of 58 to 60 years.

The arrears will be paid in salaries for the month of August, according to the GR. It further states that if the implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission is delayed, the employees will get the benefit as per the wage structure of Central government employees from January 2019.

On Monday, State Government Employees Association President Nitin Sardeshmukh said that class III and class IV employees of Zilla Parishads, state hospitals and staff working at the Mantralaya (Secretariat) would participate in the strike. He said that the arrears accrued to employees in the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission from the state government, are yet to be received by them.

Sardeshmukh added that 1.85 lakh posts of class III and class IV employees are lying vacant in Maharashtra. He furthered that the demand for filling 30000 posts on compassionate grounds is also not accepted by the government. Around 30 to 40 per cent of total posts are lying vacant in hospitals and other essential service departments.

An official from the General Administration Department (GAD) said that employees working in essential services departments like hospitals, fire brigade, water supply, etc. have been directed not to take part in the strike, else the provisions of the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) would be invoked against them.

By Rahil

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