Amaravati, Jan 24 : The government employees in Andhra Pradesh on Monday served a notice on the state government that they will be going on indefinite strike from February 7 to demand rollback of a Government Order relating to pay revision.
Leaders of the PRC Sadhana Samithi, a body comprising various employees’ unions, submitted the notice to Principal Secretary, General Administration, Shashibhushan Kumar as Chief Secretary Samir Sharma was away in Delhi.
A 20-member steering committee of PRC Sadhana Samithi reached the state secretariat and submitted the notice to the official stating that the employees will go on leave from midnight of February 6.
The leaders alleged that the Government Order (GO) on pay revision was issued without taking the views of the employees. They said the implementation of GO will result in loss to the employees, teachers, and pensioners.
The government official informed the leaders that the government has constituted a committee to hold talks with them. He handed over a GO in this regard.
The committee comprises ministers Botsa Satyanarayana, Perni Nani, Buggana Rajendra Prasad and government advisor Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy. The Chief Secretary will be the member convenor.
However, leaders of employees’ unions made it clear that they have two pre-conditions for talks – they should be given report of Pay Revision Commission (PRC) and salary for current month be paid as per previous pay scales.
Earlier, the government had invited the employees’ unions for talks and the committee waited for the union leaders. However, the unions rejected the invitation for talks.
The employees say that there will be downward revision in their salaries under the new pay scale implemented as per the GO issued recently. They have been protesting for more than a week to demand the government to withdraw the GO.
PRC Sadhana Samithi leaders told reporters after submitting strike notice that the government should not dismiss their protest as insignificant. They pointed out that 13 lakh employees and pensioners will go on strike.
AP NGOs Association president Bandi Srinivasa Rao alleged that the treasury employees are being pressurised to pay salaries as per new PRC and wondered why the government was acting in hasty manner.
Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy had announced 23 per cent pay revision earlier this month. A GO issued to implement the same sparked protest by employees who alleged that revised pay scales would result in reduction of their present salaries.
The employees’ unions are demanding that the government pay their salaries as per 27 per cent interim relief which was announced pending implementation of the new PRC report.
However, the government maintains that there will not be downward revision of salaries. It claimed that with the payment of DA arrears since 2019, the gross salary will go up.(IANS)