Power employees call off strike after management accedes to some of their demands

Following a two-hour-long meeting, the two parties reached some settlement and the strike was called off.

GORAKHPUR: In a crucial breakthrough, the protest being staged by power corporation employees against management was called off on Saturday evening after a “positive dialogue between the employee’s union leader and government officials”.

The parties reached some settlement in two-hour-long meeting (HT Photo)

Speaking on the development, Yashwant Singh, the joint secretary of the employee’s union, said, “The High Court order paved the way for positive dialogue and brought some flexibility in the attitude of officials.”

Following a two-hour-long meeting, the two parties reached some settlement and the strike was called off. The deadlock between employees and the management had led to some disruption in the electricity supply in various parts of the Gorakhpur and Basti divisions.

Earlier, the demand put forth by power corporation employees to call off the strike included -- regularisation of services of daily wage workers, restoration of the old pension scheme, and improved working conditions, among others.

Notably, the collection of electricity bills and other official work was already hampered. However, the situation had become even more complicated on Friday after the suspension of an executive and two assistant engineers of the Maharajganj division. Unhappy with the suspension, employees stopped the electricity supply of 14 power substations in seven districts -- including Maharajganj, Deoria, Kushinagar, Sidharth Nagar, Basti, Gorakhpur, and Sant Kabir Nagar. This impacted about 2 lakh power consumers.

In the wake of the disruption, Ashu Kaliya, chief engineer, Purvanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam, had said that a high-level negotiation between the employee’s union leader and M Devraj, the chairman of the power corporation, would yield positive results.

After the settlement, Yashwant Singh said that the government had agreed on certain demands -- including time-scale promotion of employees and adopting the due procedure in nominating the chairman.