CM’s appeal ignored, JACTTO-GEO firm on strike from December 4

On Saturday, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami made an appeal to the government employees insisting them not to go on a strike. But the appealwas rejected by the office bearers of various government unions and the talks held by senior minister Jayakumar also failed.

“The issues related to government employees have been pending for the past two years. We have not closed our channels and are ready for talks anytime, but the CM must give an assurance. In that case, we are ready to withdraw the strike notice,” M Anbarasu, general secretary, Tamil Nadu Government Employees Association told DTNext.

Meanwhile, JACTTO GEO office bearers made it clear that they would not hinder the ongoing relief work in the delta region. “For a change, government employees in four delta districts will participate in the relief work after staging a strike protest,” Anbarasu said.

JACTTO GEO convenor Mayavan said, “If the CM resolves the issue before December 4, we will reconsider the strike, but now, we are going ahead with it,” Mayavan said. “The strike will have a serious impact in delta region and hence the CM appealed to the government employees,” a senior bureaucrat told DTNext.

The State had recently approached the Madras High Court to stop Transport Department workers from participating in a strike. 

Earlier in the day, Palaniswami, in a statement, said the ongoing relief work will be affected if the strike was held. The State appointed one-man committee, headed by retired IAS officer TS Sreedhar to ascertain the scope for implementing the demands of the government employees submitted its report “only now” and the same is being considered, the statement read.

Scrapping the existing contributory pension scheme and revoking the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) and seventh pay commission are two major demands of the government employees. JACTTO GEO hopes to garner around 7 lakh employees for the strike.