Two-day statewide strike by power corp staff from tomorrow Under the banner of the Joint Forum

Submitted by lovekesh on Tue, 07/12/2010 - 7:57am

Tribune News Service

Patiala, December 6
Under the banner of the Joint Forum, a conglomerate of various unions of non-gazetted employees, working with the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) and Punjab State Transmission Corporation Limited (PSTCL), have announced their decision to remain on a two-day statewide strike on December 8 and 9. The strike call has been given in protest against the non-fulfillment of various long-pending demands of the employees. Though the Joint Forum representatives have made it clear that strike would be peaceful but they have announced that all the cash counters and complaint centres would remain closed in the entire state during the strike.

Speaking to The Tribune, spokesman of the Employees Joint Forum, Manjit Singh Chahal said that protest demonstrations would also be staged at the sub-division level in all the districts of Punjab. “The PSPCL/PSTCL management’s and the government attitude towards the non-implementation of recommendations of Wage Formulation Committee (WFC) is really unfortunate. The rate of increment has still been kept as 3 per cent, instead of increasing it to 3.5 percent, as recommended by the WFC”, he rued. Chahal added that they want perks and wages as per recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission.

The employees further said that government must understand that they will not stop their agitations until all their demands are accepted. “Signing of the tripartite agreement was just one matter. There are several other issues and government had assured us that within 30 days of unbundling of the erstwhile Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB), the all matters related with promotional increments, emoluments and many other long pending demands of the employees would be resolved. But seven months have passed and neither Management’s of Power Corporation, nor government, seems concerned with our demands,” said a senior Employees Joint Forum leader Surinder Singh Pehalwan.

As per information, around half dozen employees unions including Technical Service Union (TSU), Employees Federation AITUC, Bijli Mulazim Front and Workers Federation INTUC, would be supporting the strike call. Meanwhile, PSEB Engineers Association president H.S.Bedi has informed that they have decided not to perform any extra duties during the two-day strike period. “We would be doing only our duty and would not perform any duty of our subordinate”, which clearly implies that in case of any breakdown during strike days, engineers would not make any efforts to rectify the snag.