Maharashtra govt employees start indefinite strike for OPS; services affected

The strike has affected health services at government hospitals, schools and colleges the most as all the Class 3 and 4 employees, teaching and non-teaching staff have gone off duty

An indefinite strike of government employees demanding implementation of the old pension scheme (OPS) began in Maharashtra on Tuesday.

A protest by Maharashtra government employees in Thane on Tuesday. (PTI)

The state government has warned of action against the striking employees while it offered to consider their demand. The unions, however, said they want an immediate announcement. The government, on the other hand, has said that they cannot give any assurances without studying its financial implications.

“We are yet to receive the figures but majority of the employees are on strike and we will continue our protest until our demand is fulfilled,” said Vishwas Katkar, convenor, steering committee of the government employees unions.

The strike has affected health services at government hospitals, government run schools and colleges the most as all the Class 3 and Class 4 employees, teaching and non-teaching staff have gone off duty.It has also impacted government offices in rural areas and urban areas as zilla parishad and municipal councils employees also participated in the indefinite strike.

As far as major cities like Mumbai and others are concerned, they will not feel much of its impact as employees from the municipal corporations including Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) have not participated in the strike. Instead, BMC employees will be holding an agitation at Azad Maidan this afternoon to show solidarity with the state government employees.

The Class 1 and 2 officials are also not participating in the strike, which means the government functioning will not be stalled completely.

On Monday, chief secretary Manukumar Srivastava said the state government is hopeful that the employees will withdraw their strike. He said that they are trying to minimise the impact of the strike and orders have been issued to all the collectors and divisional commissioners to ensure that the people are not impacted much because of the strike.

On Monday, the state government offered formation of an administrative committee to study the demand for implementing old pension scheme in detail but employees unions insisted that the government should accept their demand as a policy decision.

“The state government will constitute an administrative committee comprising officers to study the demand for implementing the old pension scheme. The committee will submit its report within a given time frame,” stated a statement issued by the chief minister’s office.

The Maharashtra government discontinued OPS in 2005 and replaced it with a new pension scheme under which the pension amount was deducted from the emplyoees’ salaries unlike the old version. “In OPS, the employees used to get 50% of the basic salary as pension but in the new pension scheme, the amount is not even 25% of the basic salary,” said Katkar.

The demand for OPS gained ground during the recent legislative council elections when the organisations of the teachers demanded restoration of the scheme. During the campaign, chief minister and deputy chief minister said that they would consider the demand but so far have not been able to take a decision on the same.

As per an estimate, the government will end up spending upto 30% of its revenue on paying pension to its employees if it adopts the OPS.

In 2005, when the then chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh governmen stopped OPS, Maharashtra had a debt of around ₹1.10 lakh crore. The state budget presented on March 9 states that the state’s debt is expected to reach ₹6,49,699 crore by the end of the current fiscal year.

The delicate financial condition of state exchequer is preventing the state government from accepting the demand for OPS. Last week, deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis told the legislative council that its implementation would severely affect the state’s financial health. “We spend 58% of the revenue on salaries, pension and repayment of the debt. If OPS is implemented, the burden will be felt after 2030-32. The spending may go up to 83% of the total revenue, including that from the central funds,” he said.

However, union representatives argued that the six states such as Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal have started its implementation. “If their economy is not affected with OPS, why only our economy will crumble,” Katkar said, adding, “Most of the employees are going to retire only after 12 years and if the state government planned it systematically, then OPS can be implemented without any hitch as they will get a period of 12 long years,” Katkar told reporters on Monday.