OPS talks fail, government employees’ to start indefinite strike

Class 1 and Class 2 officers have decided not to participate, but all Class 3 and Class 4 employees, teaching and non-teaching staff in educational institutions, zilla parishads in rural areas and municipal councils in small cities will be completely off duty.

Mumbai: Various services are likely to be affected in Maharashtra from Tuesday, as state government employees have decided to go on an indefinite strike to press their demand for implementation of the old pension scheme (OPS). The strike by about 1.8 million government and semi-government employees will affect hospitals, schools and colleges run by the state, revenue services and government offices.

Mumbai, India - March 13, 2023: Vishwas Katkar, convenor, Steering Committee of Government Employees Unions along with other representatives from various employees unions, declare indefinite strike from midnight during a press conference, at Mumbai Press Club, Azad Maidan, in Mumbai, India, on Monday, March 13, 2023. (HT Photo) (Hindustan Times)

Class 1 and Class 2 officers have decided not to participate, but all Class 3 and Class 4 employees, teaching and non-teaching staff in educational institutions, zilla parishads in rural areas and municipal councils in small cities will be completely off duty. The impact of the strike will not be felt in Mumbai on Tuesday, as BMC employees will not participate on the very first day. They are expected to clarify their stand on Tuesday.

After the unions’ meeting with the chief secretary Manukumar Srivastava remained inconclusive, the chief minister and deputy chief minister held a meeting with representatives from 11 different unions and urged them not to go on strike. Chief minister Eknath Shinde and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis offered to set up an administrative committee to study their demand, but employees’ unions insisted that the government accept their demand as a policy decision first. The government’s stand is that it cannot give any assurances without studying the financial implications.

A statement issued by the chief minister’s office said that the government would constitute an administrative committee to study the demand for implementing OPS. “The state government accepts the principle that government officers and employees can live a safe and dignified life post-retirement, and thus both the chief minister and deputy chief minister have urged employees to withdraw the strike,” said the note.

Srivastava said the government was trying to minimise the impact of the strike. “We have issued directives to all collectors and divisional commissioners to ensure that people are not impacted much,” he said. “They have to make all the necessary arrangements for this. On Tuesday, the government will again urge the employees’ unions to come back to work, and we are hoping that they will pay heed to our request.”

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

The demand for OPS gained ground during the recent legislative council elections when teachers’ organisations demanded restoration of the scheme. During the campaign, the CM and deputy CM had said they would consider the demand but so far have not been able to take a decision on it. According to estimates, the government will end up spending up to 30 percent of its revenue on paying pension to its employees if it adopts OPS.

In 2005, when the Vilasrao Deshmukh government took the bold step of stopping 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 condition of the state exchequer is what is preventing the state government from accepting the demand for OPS.

Last week, Fadnavis told the legislative council that the implementation of OPS would severely affect the state’s financial health. “We spend 58 percent of revenue on salaries, pension and repayment of debt,” he said. “If OPS is implemented, the burden will be felt after 2030-32. The spending may go up to 83 percent of the total revenue, including that from central funds.”

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

The state government is yet to impose the Maharashtra Essential Services Maintenance Act (MESMA), which is binding on government employees. Katkar said the unions would stay strong if the state government tried to “arm-twist” employees into coming back to work by invoking MESMA against them.