Govt employees call off strike after Ajit Pawar’s assurance

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Nearly 1.7 million class 3 and 4 government employees withdrew their two-day strike after a brief agitation of four hours on Wednesday. Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar met the union leaders representing the employees on Tuesday and assured them to fulfil their demands in the next two months.

Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar HT/File

The employees have been demanding that the retirement age be made 60 from the current 58 years and the old pension scheme discontinued in 2004 be relaunched among others. Various employees’ unions, including Rajya Sarkari Karmachari Madhyavarti Sanghatana, Rajya Sarkari Cahturthshreni Karmachari Mahasangh (RSCKM), and the federation representing teachers and non-teaching employees, had called for the strike on February 23 and 24.

Nearly 80% of the 1.7 million employees from these two categories – class 3 and 4 - representing clerks, peons, teachers, and nurses participated in the protest for the first half of Wednesday. In the afternoon, they decided to call it off.

“Pawar during his meeting with the representatives of the employees on Tuesday assured us to meet our demands in two months. He also requested us to call off the strike. We held a meeting of the leaders of all the unions on Wednesday morning. Most of them were in favour of withdrawing it,” Bhausaheb Pathan, state president of RSCKM, said.

Pathan said chief secretary Debashish Chakrabarty spoke to the leaders on Wednesday morning and assured them that the government would not initiate any action against the protesting employees.