Hyderabad, December 04: Talks between the State government and the representatives of government employees held this morning at the Secretariat turned fruitful.
The Employees, Teachers and Workers Joint Action Committee (JAC) agreed to postpone their strike for two weeks, while the state cabinet announced a hike of 8.56 per cent dearness allowance (DA) for the employees. The increase in DA results in an additional burden of Rs 1,488.04 crore on the government treasury.
Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy invited the JAC representatives for talks and gave them a patient hearing. He urged them to give him some time to settle down in his new post before taking up their problems. He also reminded them that the financial condition of the State exchequer was not encouraging.
Though skeptical, the employees agreed and postponed their strike call. Within hours, the cabinet approved the proposal to increase the DA by 8.56 pc with effect from July this year.
The amount equivalent to the DA from July to November will be added to the General Provident Fund account of employees. From December, it will be included in their salary (to be paid in January).
The government employees yesterday announced their plans to go on strike after December 15, expressing their dissatisfaction over the government’s attitude towards resolving their demands.
The employees complained that the State government failed to resolve their ‘genuine’ demands that had been kept pending for a long time.
Their demands included filling of four lakh vacancies in all government departments across the State, abolishing outsourcing, regularising jobs, increasing house rent allowance, raising the medical reimbursement from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 3 lakh and doing away with the apprentice system for teachers.
–Agencies