Almost “one lakh” staff from over 50 authorities departments below the banner of the Punjab State Ministerial Providers Union (PSMSU) throughout the state went on a two-day mass depart starting Tuesday, protesting the “non-payment of 4 instalments of dearness allowance (DA) totalling 15 per cent of their fundamental”.
Observing ‘Black Diwali’, 10,000 staff of various authorities departments on the Punjab Civil Secretariat and directorates in Chandigarh walked out of their workplaces at 2 pm below the banner of the Sanjha Mulazam Manch (SMM).
“The calls for of PSMSU and SMM are the identical. However civil secretariat staff usually don’t go on a strike for lengthy as a result of authorities workplaces function from the secretariat,” Sanjha Mulazam Manch convenor Sukhchain Singh Khehra mentioned.
PSMSU state common secretary Pipal Singh Sidhu mentioned, “Almost one lakh staff of the Punjab authorities went on a two-day mass depart throughout the state on Tuesday and round 10,000 staff on the Punjab Civil Secretariat and directorates staged a walkout in Chandigarh, giving a abandoned look to workplaces. We are going to return to our workplaces on Monday as October 31 is Diwali and November 1 is Vishvakarma Day, adopted by a weekend.”
“Mass depart will finish on October 30. On November 8, we’ll stage a mega protest rally-cum-dharna exterior the home or workplace of AAP Barnala bypoll candidate Harinder Singh Dhaliwal,” he mentioned. Khehra, in the meantime, mentioned, “The Punjab authorities has did not pay 4 DA instalments to a majority of the workers. A DA of 4 per cent every was introduced on January 1, 2023, July 1, 2023, and January 1, 2024, whereas 3 per cent in July 2024, totalling 15 per cent, which is pending and but to be included within the worker’s wage. Solely IAS, IPS, IRS and judicial companies officers in Punjab have acquired the 15% DA whereas the remainder staff are nonetheless ready for it. Logically, Class IV staff ought to first get DA. Thus, we staged a walkout from our workplaces at 2 pm to watch ‘Black Diwali’.” “At the moment, our DA is 38 per cent, which ought to have been 53 per cent (by including 15 per cent) by now. Earlier governments additionally used to delay paying DA instalments however that might be one or two instalments and they’d clear the backlog in some months. However unusually, the AAP authorities has stored 4 instalments pending,” Khehra added.
The Democratic Lecturers’ Entrance of Punjab, in the meantime, demanded the Punjab authorities to instantly launch 15 per cent of pending DA consistent with the Centre.
DTF-Punjab state president Digvijay Pal Sharma and state secretary Balbir Longowal mentioned, “Staff in Punjab are receiving 15 per cent much less DA than the central authorities staff, forcing them to obtain decrease salaries in comparison with state authorities staff in neighbouring states like Himachal Pradesh and Haryana.”
They accused the AAP authorities of adopting an anti-employee coverage by slicing 36 kinds of different allowances too.
The DTF-Punjab additionally demanded that staff recruited after July 2020 must be given salaries as per the pay fee applied by the Punjab authorities and never based on the central pay scale. The PSMSU’s different calls for embody the implementation of the Previous Pension Scheme (OPS), clearing pending promotions, re-implementing assured profession development (ACP) scheme, and regularising the workers on contract.
