Hundreds of employees belonging to various associations affiliated to Joint Action Committee of Tamil Nadu Teachers' Organisations - Government Employees’ Organisations (JACTTO-GEO) staged demonstration in five places in the district as part of a State-wide strike on Thursday.
Office-bearers of JACTTO-GEO said that the demonstration on Panagal Road in the city saw the maximum participation of more than 700 people while protests in Tirumangalam, Usilampatti, Melur, and Vadipatti also witnessed a considerable turnout.
Though there were reports on Wednesday about a split within JACTTO-GEO and that many associations had opted out of the protest, the office-bearers said that members of all associations took part in the strike. “Only senior-level leaders of few organisations had announced withdrawal from the strike. However, their district-level office-bearers and members took part in the protest in large numbers across the State,” said S. Krishnan, Madurai district secretary, Tamil Nadu Government Employees' Association.
He said that there was no reason to call off the strike since the government had not given any concrete assurance or taken steps to meet their three key demands - repeal of the new Contributory Pension Scheme and bringing back the old pension scheme; implementation of recommendations of the Central government’s Seventh Pay Commission for State government employees; and a monthly payment of 20 % of the incremental basic and grade pay as interim relief till implementation of the pay commission recommendations.
On the the interim stay imposed by Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Thursday regarding the strike, Mr. Ganesan said that the office-bearers were yet to discuss and take a call on the matter since all were under detention throughout the day.
A statement by the School Education Department said that 87.37 % of all the teachers and 95.28 % of non-teaching staff in the district reported for duty on Thursday.
