The Sanjha Mulazam Manch Punjab and UT on Saturday criticised the state government for delay in releasing salaries due to a proposal to impose pay cut.
At a meeting of the conveners of different unions through video conferencing, the Sanjha Mulazam Manch objected to the refusal of district treasury offices to accept salary bills of employees on verbal instructions from the government.
“District treasuries usually start accepting salary bills from 25th of each month, but they are not accepting it this time. This is because of a proposal to cut salaries of state employees,” said Sukhchain Singh Khehra, convener-cum-coordinator of the union, in a statement.
He said the proposal was to cut pay of two to three days every month for different categories of employees over the next one year. “Government employees are on the frontline in the fight against Covid-19 and the government should give them extra salary instead of imposing a pay cut,” he said.
The union’s conveners also criticised the proposal to deduct mobile allowance of employees stating that this meagre amount was proving too much for the government but MLAs, MPs and ministers were being given Rs 15,000 telephone allowance.