Tamil Nadu govt employees launch indefinite strike

CHENNAI/COIMBATORE: More than two lakh state government employees in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday launched an indefinite strike to press for their various demands. The strike affected functioning of some departments.
The employees launched the strike as a meeting between the representatives of the employees and a team of ministers in Chennai on Tuesday yielded no result.
“A meeting was held in Chennai on Tuesday evening. Finance minister O Panneerselvam, three other ministers and finance secretary K Shanmugam represented the government at the meeting. We explained our demands to them. But they told us that chief minister J Jayalalithaa would take a decision,” Government Employees Association chief R Balasubramanian told TOI.
Their demands ranged from filling vacancies and fixing minimum wages for noon meal scheme workers to reinstating 12,000 panchayat union workers and cancelling the new pension rules.
“There is a big problem with the pension scheme. More than Rs 10,000 crore has been collected from four lakh government employees. But government has to invest 10% of the employee’s pension and the total money will be invested in stock market. But the government has not done anything and we warned the government about going on strike on this issue alone,” Balasubramanian said. The employees also want the pending amount to be transferred to the general provident fund.
The employees are also demanding filling vacancies in 65 departments and setting up a committee on the basis of the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations.
“The strike will continue till the government comes out with a decision on pension and our other demands. In the coming days, more and more employees from the departments will take part in the strike,” he said.
In Coimbatore, more than 1,500 government employees struck work. The striking employees staged a protest the south taluk office for almost three hours.