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Gaurav Raghuvanshi
Ambarish Mukherjee

The employees gave their opinion through a ballot held at all Government offices by the respective employees unions in which 96 per cent voted in favour of strike

Ahmedabad/NewDelhi , Jan. 18

CENTRAL Government employees have overwhelmingly approved going in for an indefinite strike from March 1 demanding the setting up of the sixth pay commission to revise the pay scales of the employees.

The employees gave their opinion through a ballot held at all Government offices by the respective employees unions in which 96 per cent voted in favour of strike.

About 10.68 lakh employees of the unions affiliated to the All India Railwaymens' Association (AIFR) and National Federation of Indian Railwaymen (NFIR) participated in the mandatory ballot held on January 3 and over 96 per cent of them voted in favour of the strike.

In the production units of defence and other establishments 3.5 lakh employees participated in the strike ballot, out of which also 96 per cent voted in favour of going in for an indefinite strike.

"We are planning to serve a notice on the 16 General Managers (zonal heads and heads of the Railway production units) on February 7. If our demands are not met, the Railway employees will go on an indefinite strike starting 6 a.m. on March 1," the General Secretary, Western Railway Mazdoor Sangh, Mr J.G. Mahurkar, told Business Line here.

In addition, the Railway workers will observe February 23 as a protest day by organising demonstrations throughout the country, Mr Mahurkar said.

The Railway unions are expecting their counterparts in other Central Government services, such as defence production units, Income-Tax, Post and Telegraph to follow suit.

"As per the provisions of the Fifth Pay Commission, the Sixth Pay Commission should have been set up in 2003. We have waited long enough for the Government to announce the new Pay Commission and the strike call is the result of the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram's refusal to honour that commitment," Mr Mahurkar said.

He said that there was no response to the demands of the Central Government employees despite repeated requests and the unions were forced to resort to the ultimate step of fixing up a strike date.

"Mr M. Raghaviaah, the leader of the staff side in the Joint Consultative Machinery (National Council), has decided to boycott further meetings of the JCM as it has ceased to be an effective forum for resolution of disputes amicably through bilateral negotiation," Mr Mahurkar said.

Apart from the Pay Commission, the other demands of the Railway employees include revision of the ceiling on bonus, scrapping of the Running Allowance Committee's report, new contributory pension scheme and filling up of nearly 1,80,000 vacancies in the Railways.

The Convenor of the Joint Council of Action (JCA) and General Secretary of the All-India Railwaymen's Federation (AIRF), Mr J.P. Chaubey, said that till now there are no positive indication from the Government side.

"I have written to the Cabinet Secretary and the Secretary in the Ministry of Personnel as the JCA convenor along with our 20 point charter of demand apart from the setting up of the new pay commission. I hope that the negotiations should start now," he said.

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