Govt invokes ESMA against employees on strike

Tough decision of ‘no work no wages’ taken on day one of shutdown in Secretariat

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

JAMMU, Apr 5: In sharp contrast to its image of a government of submission and surrender, 15-month-old National Conference-led ruling coalition today decided to invoke Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) to beat the ongoing agitation of over 400,000 state employees. It was on day one of the weeklong strike, which was, for the first time this year, also observed in Civil Secretariat that Omar Abdullah government took the tough decision of not paying any wages to any of the employees found absent from work.

After a three-hour-long Cabinet meeting this evening, Minister of Finance and head of a 5-member Cabinet sub committee dealing with the demands of the employees on strike, Abdul Rahim Rather, told mediapersons at a hurriedly organized news conference at Chief Minister’s Secretariat that Government had taken tough decisions to keep the systems running for ten million people of the state. He disclosed that the Cabinet discussed the employees’ strike and their demands at length and decided to invoke different provisions of ESMA to discharge what he called “the government’s constitutional responsibilities”.

Rather made it clear that none of the government employees found on strike or absent from work would be paid any wages for the period of absence. While further explaining consequences of absence of the government employees from office without “reasonable excuse”, Rather said that such employees as well as those preventing the employees from discharging of their duties could be arrested and detained for a period upto one year and subjected to fine. “We spend huge amount of Rs 25 Crore a day on account of the wages of the government employees. If they chose to remain absent from work, it is our constitutional duty to save this public money. We feel we are accountable for this expenditure before our people and before Almighty. Wasting of this money would be a gunaah-e-azeem (huge sin)”, Rather asserted.

Flanked by other members of the Cabinet sub committee---Surjit Singh Salathia, Taj Mohiuddin, Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed and Ali Mohammad Sagar---Rather said that the employees had declared war on their own government and pushed it to the wall with their ‘obduracy’. According to him, the trade union leaders’ current call for weeklong shutdown of offices was in no way justifiable as the government was leaving no stone unturned to meet their demands. He said that Government had made it clear to the employees in a meeting on February 18th, 2009, that it would implement recommendations of the 6th Central Pay Commission from 01-07-2009 and the demand of raising the retirement age from 58 to 60 years would be considered in view of all opinions.

“As per our agreement with the employees, we implemented the pay commission recommendations from 01-07-2009 and also paid all installments of Dearness Allowance to them all. Just one installment of DA, that has been announced by Government of India a few days back, remains payable. As against their demand of raising the wages of daily rated workers from Rs 70 to Rs 100, we enhanced it to Rs 110. We also took the bold and unprecedented decision of regularization of the services of all employees appointed by competent officers on adhoc, contractual and consolidated wages arrangement. We have passed the Bill in Assembly today”, Rather said. He said that Government held two detailed meetings with the trade union leaders on 19-03-2010 and 03-04-2010 and reiterated the assurance that their arrears would be liquidated as and when resources were made available by the Centre.

“We advised them to wait for the outcome of the visit of all-party delegation to New Delhi. The delegation is proposed to take up the demand of the payment of arrears with the Centre in near future. But, rather than being amenable to reason and logic, they began browbeating us with another strike”, Rather said. He said that in 2009-10, Omar Abdullah government had paid an additional amount of Rs 1,800 Crore on the employees’ salaries which was unprecedented in the state’s history. “There is absolutely no procrastination on our side. Our intentions are clear”, he added.

Rather said that his government had worked out a contingency plan to keep the systems functional and urged upon all daily rated, adhoc, consolidated and contractual staff to ensure that there was not a day’s break in their continuity of service. He made it clear that only those employees, who had no break in seven years of continuous service, would be entitled to regularization in government service. In reply to a question, Rather disclosed that his Government could resort to the option of fast track recruitment of the unemployed youth to overcome the deficiency of manpower.

Responding to another question, Rather made it clear that the government employees, responding to the strike calls of the separatist Hurriyat Conference and other separatist political outfits, would be making themselves liable to the similar action under ESMA. According to him, now on, no government employee found absent from office “without reasonable excuse” on the days of shutdown called by separatist organizations would be paid that particular day’s salary.

Asked for his reaction to the reports that Government had ordered Police to arrest prominent trade union leaders in Srinagar and Jammu, Rather said that no such orders had immediately flown from the Government. He, nevertheless, sought to make it clear that law would take its course on the employees found on strike or preventing the employees from discharging their duties.

END