A wage agreement between the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) and trade unions was signed at a function held in the city on Thursday.
Electricity Minister P. Thangamani chaired the meeting in which Tangedco Chairman M. Sai Kumar, Energy secretary Vikram Kapur and Labour Commissioner K. Balanchandran participated. After signing the wage agreement and work load settlement with the trade unions, Mr. Thangamani announced a wage revision consisting of 2.57 multiplying factor across all sections of the employees and officers in Tangedco. Talking about the highlights of the wage accord which had been pending from December 1, 2015, he said the wage revision would be implemented for 79,100 employees and 11,169 officers, and would lead to an additional financial burden of ₹1,317.87 crore annually.
Additional increment
As per the wage revision, the lowest grade employees in the rank of field assistant would get a minimum hike of ₹3,175 per month against the maximum of ₹7,775 and the officers cadre would receive a minimum hike of ₹5,800 per month against the maximum of ₹27,375. All the employees and officers would get one additional increment in their pay scale for the Tamil Nadu Electricity Department completing 60 years.
In the new wage accord it has also been proposed to reduce the probationary period to three months from six months across all sections of the workforce and creation of 2,654 new posts in various departments. The fourth Saturday of every month has been declared as holiday. Already, the electricity department does not function on the second Saturday.
Mr. Thangamani said that the post of Assessors have been merged and upgraded, wages of casual labourers increased to ₹380 per day from ₹250 per day, one junior engineer post for maintenance purposes in 110 kilo volt (KV) substations will be created and 96 new vacancies will be filled with technical assistants in Coimbatore and Madurai metros.
The Tangedco has proposed to create 2,000 new Line Inspector posts for distribution section thereby incurring a cost of ₹86.42 crore annually. It has also been proposed to create 156 new Assessment Officer posts for posting in high revenue sub-divisions in the State. This would lead to an increased expenditure of ₹14.75 crore.
A senior official of Tangedco said all the trade unions the including Labour Progressive Front (LPF) the labour wing arm of DMK and the CPI(M)-led CITU, participated and signed the wage agreement.
