Railway unions threaten to go on strike

Madurai: Railway employee unions have threatened to go on an indefinite strike stating that their genuine recommendations towards 7th Pay Commission were not considered by the central government.
Southern Railway Mazdoor Union's president C A Raja Sridhar told reporters that they will issue a strike notice to the railway officials on March 11 and go on the indefinite strike from April 11.Ahead of it, three days of strike ballot will be held among the employees from February 11 to 13.
Sridhar said they were expecting the government to call them for discussions after they submitted their recommendations such as Rs 26,000 as basic pay instead of Rs 18,000 fixed by the commission; increasing annual increment from 3 to 5%; continuing old pension scheme in place of new pension scheme; two increments at every promotion and bonus without ceiling. They also appealed to withdraw performance related increment scheme. But none of the recommendations were considered and the implementation committee that was to review their recommendations did not show any positive disposition towards their demands, he said. "We are going on an indefinite strike from April 11 after giving due strike notice to the railway management on March 11," he said.
Six months ago, they conducted a similar strike ballot among employees and 92% of them opted for a strike but the time period elapsed. Hence, they have to go for another ballot as per norms, Sridhar added. All central government employees will go on strike and railway employee unions will include another demand of scrapping Debroy Committee recommendations as another demand, according to him.