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The State government proposes to hold meetings with the employee unions of Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) before declaring the same as a company.
The Chief Minister, Mr Oommen Chandy, announced this to newspersons here after a routine meeting of the Cabinet.
EMPLOYEE VIEWS
“I have come to know that the union leaders have aired some views on various aspects, including service conditions in the new entity,” Mr Chandy said.
It is only in the fitness of things that they discuss these issues and sort them out with the government. The meeting will be called soon, he said.
The Chief Minister said he would subsequently have a separate session with the Finance Minister, Mr K. M. Mani, and the Electricity Minister, Mr Aryadan Mohammed.
They would work a draft document on the road map for the corporatisation of the KSEB, which would be submitted before the cabinet.
The proceedings for KSEB's conversion into a company had otherwise been completed by January last year.
Serving members of the KSEB would become the directors of the new company.
FINAL DECISION
But a final decision by the government was postponed till after the elections to the state assembly. It has been pending even after one year in office of the new government.
Its approval is needed before KSEB assets and liabilities can be converted to the company.
The unions had aired the view that only a comprehensive agreement specifying the terms and conditions would protect the interests of the 31,000 employees.
They had cited the Tamil Nadu a model of signing a tripartite agreement involving the government, the board, and recognised trade.
This was formalised prior to restructuring the board into separate units for transmission, generation, and distribution.
EMPLOYEE INTERESTS
The agreement contained provisions for smooth implementation of the reforms and also gave due importance to employees interests.
It also went as far as to allay apprehensions about possible retrenchment and even promised meaningful redeployment of those rendered surplus.
The agreement sought to protect service conditions, mainly welfare measures, pension and the benefits due to the pensioners and family pensioners.
A grievance-handling committee too had been provided to look into the service issues of the employees during the transition.
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