Trade unions miffed at Stalin’s unilateral bonus announcement

Stalin on Saturday announced a Deepavali bonus of 8.33 per cent and an ex-gratia of 1.67 per cent to Group ‘C’ and ‘D’ category workers and employees working in all profit/loss-making public sector undertakings. Eligible permanent workers will receive a bonus and ex-gratia of Rs 8,400 each.

The move will benefit over 2.87 lakh employees. The total amount would be Rs 216.38 crore, according to an official announcement.

CITU state president A Soundara Rajan said that the previous AIADMK government slashed the bonus for the PSUs like Tangedco, TNSTC and Aavin from 20 per cent to 10 per cent citing COVID-19.

“For this year, the trade unions have given representation to the respective managements over the bonus. When they were ready to hold talks, the Chief Minister has made the bonus announcement much to the displeasure of the workers. The approach of the state government is akin to that of the previous AIADMK government,” he said.

AITUC affiliated TNSTC Employees Federation president M Arumugam said that when the AIADMK government announced a 10 per cent bonus, the confederation of trade unions comprising of DMK’s LPF and CITU held a protest against the cut in the bonus last year.

He said that if the transport minister had held talks with the unions, they would have got a chance to put forward their views, but the government announced the bonus unilaterally which is unacceptable.