The State government’s decision on freezing dearness allowance and suspending encashment of earned leave has drawn flak from trade unions.
The State government’s decision comes after the Centre government decided to freeze DA to its employees and pensioners. “A freeze on the allowance is arbitrary and against law. This announcement was made suddenly without consulting trade unions,” said S. Sampath, joint general secretary of Tamil Nadu Government Transport Corporation Staff Federation.
Though the government was facing financial crunch because of the COVID-19 pandemic, they should have resorted to some other means to handle the situation like recovering loans from corporate houses and increasing the share of Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives.
“The government thinks twice before disbursing benefits. But, with deductions, the decision making was swift,” said All India Trade Union Congress State secretary M. Nanda Singh.
V. Pitchai of Centre of Indian Trade Unions said that only if people had money will there be an increase in production and revenue. Melur Alphonse, secretary of Labour Progressive Federation, said the move would affect people and have an impact on the economy.
