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Ludhiana: Power employees to resume work-to-rule protest from May 21
Announcing the next phase of agitation, the unions said a statewide sit-in would be staged outside chief minister Bhagwant Mann’s residence in Sangrur on May 24, followed by a two-day strike across Punjab on June 16 and 17
Electricity employees and pensioners’ organisations on Sunday announced that they will resume their work-to-rule protest from May 21, alleging that the Punjab power management had failed to implement assurances given during talks held in Chandigarh on April 30.
The decision was taken during a meeting of various employee and pensioner bodies held at Shaheed Karnail Singh Isru Bhawan in Ludhiana under the leadership of Gurbhej Singh Dhillon and Gurpreet Singh Gandiwind. Under work-to-rule, employees perform only the duties required within specified working hours and refuse to take up responsibilities beyond their prescribed roles.
The organisations had earlier suspended their month-long agitation till May 20 following discussions with power management officials. However, union leaders alleged that neither the minutes of the April 30 meeting had been issued officially nor had the agreed demands been implemented within the stipulated timeframe.
Announcing the next phase of agitation, the unions said a statewide sit-in would be staged outside chief minister Bhagwant Mann’s residence in Sangrur on May 24, followed by a two-day strike across Punjab on June 16 and 17.
The organisations further announced a stir against senior power department officials from June 1 onwards.
The pensioners’ bodies will also stage protests outside deputy commissioner offices across the state to press for their demands.
The unions accused the power management of delaying implementation of several pending financial and service-related demands, including revised pay scales, promotional benefits, implementation of finance circular 10/16 for junior engineers and revision of pay for various employee categories.
They also raised issues related to pending recruitment, regularisation of outsourced workers, service benefits for contractual employees and promotions in certain cadres.
Union leaders additionally opposed the proposed implementation of technology-based monitoring measures by Powercom, alleging that employee privacy concerns had not been addressed adequately.
The organisations said preparatory meetings for the agitation would be conducted across Punjab on Monday and warned that the protest could intensify further if their demands remained unresolved.
