About 65 per cent employees of various Government departments in the city and district went on mass casual leave on Thursday, seeking to fill vacancies in all the departments among other demands.
The protest was organised by the Joint Council of Tamil Nadu Government Employees Organisation.
The public, who went to various State Government offices for their work, were affected as staff from revenue, rural development, commercial tax, transport, education, town panchayat, anganwadi, nutritious noon meal scheme, registration, technical education, public distribution system outlets, cooperative societies, survey and health departments participated in the protest.
State general secretary of the Tamil Nadu Government Employees Association (TNGEA) U.M. Selvaraj said that members of 36 affiliate associations participated in the protest.
The protestors urged the Government to hold talks with them to fix salaries and also medical, education, house rent and other allowances on a par with that of Central Government employees.
Among their other demands include fulfilling the election promise of implementing previous pension scheme, fix substantial basic salary for those under the consolidated pay and contract work structure and ensure transparent and corruption-free appointments, transfers and promotions.
Mr. Selvaraj said that on an average the departments across Tamil Nadu witnessed 60 to 70 per cent absentees.
He added that in Coimbatore, there was more than 90 per cent participation in the protest in some offices on the outskirts of the city.
He added that the joint committee would convene the State executive committee meeting in the second week of February and discuss intensification of the protest if the demands were not fulfilled. Earlier, the committee’s district secretary, S. Jagadeesan, led a protest at the District Collectorate.
Our Staff Reporter in Tirupur adds:
Around 1,500 members of TNGEA in the district took casual leave as part of their agitation to press for their demands for better service conditions and perks.
D. Rajagopalan, district vice-president of TNGEA, told reporters that despite Tirupur being upgraded to a Corporation, the Government employees posted in various departments were not given many perks such as the city compensatory allowance or the other mandatory allowances at the scale meant for a city such as Tirupur.
Calling upon the Centre to issue notification for the constitution of new pay commission and pay revision with retrospective effect from January 1, 2011, Mr. Rajagopalan said that the anomalies in the pay revision implemented as part of the last pay commission recommendations should be rectified at the earliest. The employees staged demonstrations at various places in the district.
In Udhagamandalam, the TNGEA members staged a demonstration in support of their 20-point charter of demands.
