National Federation of Atomic Energy Employees NFAEE DEPARTMENT OF ATOMIC ENERGY Regn.No.17/9615 Recognised by DAE vide DAE OM No. 8/1/2007 – IR&W/95 dated 13th June 2007 NFAEE Office, Opp. NIYAMAK BHAVAN, Anusaktinagar, Mumbai 400 094 Web site: www.nfaeehq.blogspot.com ; Email address: nfaee@yahoo.com

Ref.No: nfaee/sg/15/174                                                         10.09.2015

To

The Chairman

Atomic Energy Commission &

The Secretary to the Government of India,

Department of Atomic Energy

Anushakthibhavan

CSM Marg, Mumbai 400 001

Sub: Cadre Review of the Administrative and Auxiliary Staff of DAE

Sir,

        It was in the meeting chaired by the then Chairman AEC, Dr. S. Banerjee in the year 2011 agreed to constitute a committee to review the Cadre of all administrative and auxiliary categories in DAE. To constitute the committee itself DAE took about year.

        In the year 2012 the Cadre Review Committee was constituted under the chairperson of Smt. Swathi Pandey. NFAEE submitted its proposal to the Committee in the month of July 2013 itself. Though this Federation requested, the staff side never had given an opportunity to present the views in front of the committee. After various sittings and discussion among the committee a draft report was prepared by the said Cadre Review Committee and was presented in the joint meeting of DAE DC members and the office bearers of NFAEE in the month of February 2015. The staff side given various suggestions in the meeting and Additional Secretary, the Chairman of the meeting, asked the committee to come out with a final report considering all suggestions proposed by the staff side members and other official side members.

        Thereafter it is understood final meeting of the Cadre Review Committee was held in the first week of June 2015 and finalized recommendations for cadre restructuring on various categories of employees. During that time also NFAEE requested to circulate the updated cadre review report and to hold a meeting, but was not heard.

Thereafter whenever enquiring the officers concerned use to give the reply that the compilations of all proposals are being done, thereafter the report shall be submitted to the Secretary for consideration.

But even after three months over till date nothing has come out.

        It is pertinent to note here that in the DAE Department Council meeting held in the year 2014 it is committed that the Cadre Review Report shall be implemented with effect from 01.01.2015. Now the year 2015 is going to end and the report even finalized by the Committee. The Seventh Central Pay Commission is going to submit its report any time to the Government of India and thereafter it will be very difficult to the Department to get consent of the Ministry of Finance to implement the Cadre Restructuring.

        The delay may further lose the benefit for the employees and starting the cadre restructuring afresh after the implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission shall take years and the employees of DAE will lose their benefit for ever. The committee was constituted on 14^th September 2012 and 3 years already completed and no result has come. It will put question mark on the ability of the administration or doubt the seriousness on the commitment given to the Federation and DAE DC by the Chairman AEC and other senior officials during bilateral discussions.

        Under this circumstance you are requested to consider the issue seriously and direct the concerned officials to work on war foot and finalize the cadre review report immediately and complete all procedure at the earliest.

Thanking you.

Yours faithfully,

Jayaraj KV

(Secretary General)

Address for Correspondence: Jayaraj. KV, Secretary General, NFAEE

PESS/UED; BARC, Trombay, Mumbai 400 085

Tel. No: (O): 022 – 25596519; (Res): 022 – 25554179; (Mobile): 9869501189

Email Address: nfaee@yahoo.com, jrajkv@yahoo.com      

CABINET APPROVED 6% D.A. TODAY 

Release of additional instalment of Dearness Allowance to Central Government employees and Dearness Relief to Pensioners due from 1.7.2015

The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has approved release of an additional instalment of Dearness Allowance (DA) to Central Government employees and Dearness Relief (DR) to Pensioners w.e.f. 01.07.2015. This represents an increase of 6 percent over the existing rate of 113 percent of the Basic Pay/Pension, to compensate for price rise.    This will benefit about 50 lakh Government employees and 56 lakh pensioners.         The increase is in accordance with the accepted formula, which is based on the recommendations of the 6th Central Pay Commission (CPC). The combined impact on the exchequer on account of both Dearness Allowance and Dearness Relief would be in the order of Rs. 6655.14 crore per annum and Rs.4436.76 crore in the financial year 2015-16 (for a period of 8 months from July, 2015 to February, 2016).

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

MINISTRY OF FINANCE

DEPARTMENT OF EXPENDITURE

CENTRAL PENSION ACCOUNTING OFFICE

TRIKOOT-II, BHIKAJI CAMA PLACE,

NEW DELHI-110066

CPAO/Tech/Revision (Pre-2006) /2015-16/941-1011                                                                               04.09.2015

Office Memorandum

Subject:- Payment of arrears of pensions to Pre-2006 pensioners w.e.f. 01.01.2006.

In pursuance of DP&PW OM No. 38/37/08-P&PW (A) dated 28.01.2013, pension/family pension of some pensioners/family pensioners were revised w.e.f. 24.09.2012 through individual amendment authorities.

See: DP&PW OM No. 38/37/08-P&PW (A) dated 28.01.2013 – Revision of pension of pre-2006 pensioners – Revised concordance table (Annexure) of the pre-1996, pre-2006 and post 2006 pay scales/pay bands

Now, in pursuance of the orders of the Hon’ble Supreme Court, DP&PW vide its OM No. 38/37/08-P&PW (A) dated 30.07.2015 has decided to grant the benefit of revision of pension/ family pension w.e.f. 01.01.2006 in such cases. Keeping in view the sensitivity and urgency of the matter it has been to issue CPCC-wise amendment authority for such cases which have already been revised w.e.f. 24.09.2012 whose requisite details are available with CPAO in batches having name of pensioner, PPO number, bank account number, No. & date of last SSA issued as per DP & PW OM dated-28.01.2013.

See: OM No. 38/37/08-P&PW (A) dated 30.07.2015 Revision of pension of pre-2006 pensioners- Payment of Arrears from 01.01.2006: DoPPW Order

While calculating the arrears following points require special attention:-

i) Change in the rate of pension/family pension during the period from 01.01.2006 to 23.09.2012 which may be due to death of the pensioner, completion of the period of enhanced family pension and grant of additional pension on attaining the age of 80 years. It may be ensured that the pensioner/family pensioner get the benefit of revised pension from the due date whether it may be 01.01.2006 or any later date with accurate rate of pension/ family pension.

ii) The cases of dual family pension should not be mixed with these revision cases as the same have also been effective from 24.09.2012.

Heads of all CPPCs are advised to give special attention to credit the respective pension accounts at the earliest.

sd/-

(Vijay Singh)

Sr. Accounts Officer (IT & Tech)

Seventh Pay Commission is no ogre

T. T. RAM MOHAN

(The Hindu Paper Report on 7th CPC)

          The report of the Seventh Pay Commission (CPC) is set to be released soon. The new pay scales will be applicable to Central government employees with effect from January 2016. Many commentators ask whether we need periodic Pay Commissions that hand out wage increases across the board. They agonise over the havoc that will be wrought on government finances. They want the workforce to be downsized. They would like pay increases to be linked to productivity. These propositions deserve careful scrutiny. The reality is more nuanced.

Its recommendations’ impact need not give us jitters because the rise in government wages will amount to only 0.8 per cent of GDP.

Perhaps the strongest criticism of Pay Commission awards is that they play havoc with government finances. At the aggregate level, these concerns are somewhat exaggerated. Pay Commission awards typically tend to disrupt government finances for a couple of years. Thereafter, their impact is digested by the economy. Thus, pay, allowances and pension in Central government climbed from 1.9 per cent of GDP in 2001-02 to 2.3 per cent in 2009-10, following the award of the Sixth Pay Commission. By 2012-13, however, they had declined to 1.8 per cent of GDP.

 This happened despite the fact that the government chose to make revisions in pay higher than those recommended by the Sixth Pay Commission.

Today, Central government pay and allowances amount to 1 per cent of GDP. State wages amount to another 4 per cent, making for a total of 5 per cent of GDP. The medium-term expenditure framework recently presented to Parliament looks at an increase in pay of 16 per cent for 2016-17 consequent to the Seventh Pay Commission award. That would amount to an increase of 0.8 per cent of GDP. This is a one-off impact. A more correct way to represent it would be to amortize it over, say, five years. Then, the annual impact on wages would be 0.16 per cent of GDP.

The medium-term fiscal policy statement presented along with the last budget indicates that pensions in 2016-17 would remain at the same level as in 2015-16, namely, 0.7 per cent of GDP. Thus, the cumulative impact of any award is hardly something that should give us insomnia

There are a couple of riders to this. First, the government is committed to One Rank One Pension for the armed forces. This would impose an as yet undefined burden on Central government finances. Second, while the aggregate macroeconomic impact may be bearable, the impact on particular States tends to be destabilizing.

The Fourteenth Finance Commission (FFC) estimated that the share of pay and allowances in revenue expenditure of the States varied from 29 per cent to 79 per cent in 2012-13. The corresponding share at the Centre was only 13 per cent. The problem arises because since the time of the Fifth Pay Commission, there has been a trend towards convergence in pay scales. The FFC, therefore, recommended that the Centre should consult the States in drawing up a policy on government wages.

Downsizing needed?

It is often argued that periodic pay revisions would be alright if only the government could bring itself to downsize its workforce — by at least 10 to 15 per cent. From 2013 to 2016, the Central government workforce (excluding defence forces) is estimated to grow from 33.1 lakh to 35.5 lakh. Of the increase of 2.4 lakh, the police alone would account for an increase of 1.2 lakh or 50 per cent. What is required is not so much downsizing as right-sizing — we need more doctors, engineers and teachers.

Downsizing of a sort has happened. The Sixth Pay Commission estimated that the share of pay, allowances and pension of the Central government in revenue receipts came down from 38 per cent in 1998-99 to an average of 24 per cent in 2005-07. Based on the budget figures for 2015-16, this share appears to have declined further to 21 per cent. In financial terms, this amounts to a reduction of 17 percentage points over 17 years or an annual downsizing of 1 per cent. It’s a different matter that it is not downsizing through reduction in numbers of personnel.

Improving service delivery in government is the key issue. Periodic pay revision and higher pay at lower levels of government relative to the private sector could help this cause provided these are accompanied by other initiatives. The macroeconomic impact is nowhere as severe as it is made out to be.

(T.T. Ram Mohan is professor at IIM, Ahmedabad)

ON 2^ND SEPTEMBER 2015 JOINT COUNTRYWIDE GENERAL STRIKE

Hemalata

CITU

The working class of India went on a historic countrywide general strike on 2^nd September 2015 protesting against the anti worker and anti people policies of the BJP led government at the centre. The workers of the country have responded to the call of the central trade unions and independent industrial federations for general strike in an overwhelming and magnificent manner. This general strike will remain a historic milestone in the history of the trade union movement of the country. BMS, which was part of the decision, withdrew a few days before the strike saying that it was satisfied with the governments’ response. But, obviously, the workers of the country were not.

The special significance of this strike was the massive participation of workers, both from the organised and unorganised sectors, public and private sectors, women and men with great determination and grit. It is estimated that over 15 crore workers participated in the strike all over the country.

Through this massive and magnificent strike the working class of the country effectively rebuffed the attempts of the government to show itself as working for the poor. The success of the strike reflected the anger, discontent and disillusionment of the workers and employees against the brazenly anti worker, anti people, anti national and pro corporate policies of the Modi led BJP government, which came to power with their support a year ago. The working class has totally rejected the fraud being committed on the workers by amending the labour laws intended to push out more than 75% of the workers in the organised sector alone out of the purview of any legal protection. The working class made it clear that it is aware of the evil design of the government proposals in amending the Factories Act, Minimum Wages Act, Payment of Wages Act, Payment of Bonus Act, Industrial Disputes Act, PF Act, ESI Act etc whereby it wants to legalise what was hitherto consider violations of labour laws. Through this strike the workers emphatically asserted that they cannot be cheated by assurances on minimum wages, bonus etc while amending the same set of labour laws to push them out of their coverage.  Through this strike the working class warned the government that it was not going to tolerate such fraud.

The government used all sorts of tactics to scuttle the strike. It tried to create confusion and mislead sections of the workers at the same time taking care not to concede any demands raised by the trade unions. It constituted an interministerial group of ministers which made a show of conducting several rounds of discussions with the trade unions, without putting forth any concrete measures. It issued press releases making false claims of acting upon several points raised in the charter of demands. But except BMS, all the central trade unions saw through the game plan and effectively rebuffed these claims. They stood firm upon the call for the general strike reflecting the anger and dissatisfaction of the entire working class at the grass root level. The resentment among the workers was so severe that many grass root level unions affiliated to BMS were also not ready to withdraw the strike notices served earlier despite such instructions from their leadership above. In many places the workers owing allegiance to BMS also participated in the strike.

The government also resorted to threats and issued notices to central government employees about not only of loss of wages but also of loss of service. NTPC Ramagundam threatened of action under ESMA. The BPCL management approached the Kerala High Court which directed that no strike should be called pending the disposal of the petition, which was posted for 4^th September. The police conducted a flag march on the eve of the strike in Noida. In Assam, 1000 workers were arrested on the day of the strike. Around 100 workers including CITU leaders were arrested in Ahmedabad in Gujarat.

The TMC government resorted to severe repression on the workers. Chief minister Mamatha Bannerjee threatened to smash the strike at any cost. Workers were attacked even while they were campaigning for the strike. TMC goons attacked CITU activists with lethal weapons. In Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal, 175 tea garden workers along with their leaders Zia ul Alam, general secretary of the All India Plantation Workers’ Federation, Sukhomoit Oran, and Manik Sanyal, were arrested. In North 24 Paraganas district, CITU leaders Ramola Chakraborty, Nandalal Bhattacharya and Soumen Chakraborty were brutally beaten up and 125 persons including a septuagenarian bye stander were arrested. 13 persons were injured. Workers on strike were attacked in Durlabhpur of Bankura district; 5 workers were injured and 35 were arrested. CPI (M) offices in Murshidabad and Birbhum districts were attacked and ransacked. Several people including Moinul Hassan, former MP were beaten up and injured. The police arrested the victims while allowing the TMC goons go scotfree. Ashok Bhattacharjee, mayor of Siliguri was also arrested.

But the workers were not deterred by these threats. All over the country including in West Bengal, workers bravely participated in the strike in a massive manner facing thee threats and attacks. They showed their determination not only to fight for the protection of their own rights but also to save the public sector, the self reliance of our country and national sovereignty.

In several states, not only those states where the trade union movement is traditionally strong like Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura, but in many others like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Karnataka, the industrial belt of Gurgaon, Manesar, Dharuheda, etc, the strike turned out into a virtual bandh.

Though detailed reports are not available from all the states, the reports that have come from states indicate the magnitude of the 16^th country wide general strike since the advent of the neoliberal policies by the government of India.

Road transport in many of the states came to a grinding halt with almost all segments of road transport workers totally participating in the strike. There was near total strike in state road transport corporations in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan etc. Private passenger transport was totally affected in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, and Himachal Pradesh. Truck operators joined the strike in several states including Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, and several other states.

Auto rickshaw workers participated in the strike en masse in most of the states including Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu etc. In Delhi auto rickshaws & taxis also remained off the roads and extended their support to the strike. 

This time the strike was near total in most of the public sector undertakings in different parts of the country with the massive participation of both the permanent workers as well as the contract workers.

An overwhelming 90% of coal workers participated in the strike. Strike was total in Singareni Collieries. It was also total in 7 areas of ECL and 80% – 90% in the remaining. It was total in Talcher in MCL and 80% in the rest of the areas. Strike was near total, 90% – 95% in CCL and BCCL; 85% in WCL, 80% in NCL, 70% - 80% in SECL. In the Kolkata offices strike was 90%.

Strike was very successful in the oil sector as well. It was 100% in all the work locations of ONGC in Tripura, West Bengal and Assam; in other areas including Mumbai offshore locations demonstrations were held with black badges. Strike in Oil India was total throughout the country. More than 50% workers in Digboi refinery in Assam went on strike while in Guwahati the regular workers went on 4 hours strike. All the contract workers in Digboi, Guwahati and Numaligarh refineries were on total strike. In Chennai refinery, protest activities were held by all workers. In BPCL Kochi both the regular and contract workers participate totally in strike. In IOC, strike was total in the southern and north eastern regions; it was successful in the northern region and partial in the eastern region. In HPCL and BPCL marketing, strike took place only in West Bengal. The strike was total in the IOC refilling plants and petrol points all over Tamil Nadu.

The strike also impacted the power sector. The participation of electricity workers in the strike ranged between 30% and 80% in different states and utilities. All the Powergrid employees in the six states in the southern region and all the seven states of north eastern region were on strike.

Strike met with mixed response among the steel workers. It was 100% in Vizag steel, Visweswarayya Iron and Steel (VISL), 55% in Salem Steel, and partial in Bokaro, Bhilai and Rourkela Steel plants among the permanent workers. In Durgapur, Burnpur and ASP, strike had only marginal impact with over 20% participation. However, strike was 100% among the contract workers in all steel plants and near total in all iron ore mines.

In both the units of NALCO in Odisha, the strike was near total.

In BHEL Trichy, Ranipet, Haridwar, Jhansi and Bangalore the strike was near total. 50% permanent workers and all the contract workers joined in the strike in BHEL, Hyderabad.

In Hindustan Aeronautics, Bharat Electronics, BEML (Bharat Earth Movers Limited), ITI in Karnataka, permanent and contract workers are on total strike. BEL executives in Bangalore wore black badges. Altogether 50000 public sector workers in Karnataka participated in the strike.

In Hyderabad, strike was total in NMDC, HAL, BEL, HCL, and HMT Bearings; it was 90% in BHEL R&D and 50% in BHEL and 40% in BDL where all the casual workers went on strike. There was no strike in Midhani, HMT and Praga Tools.

The strike was total in insurance and near total in banks. Lakhs of central government employees including in postal, income tax, audit and accounts, atomic energy and various other departments participated in the strike. The participation of state government employees was also massive. Except in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana where they only expressed solidarity, in all the other states, state government employees participated in the strike.

Strike was also total in BSNL with over a lakh telecom employees participating.

Reports show that defence production was seriously affected by the strike. Workers in the defence units all over the country participated in the strike in a big way. It was 85% in Trichy, and 75%-100% in different units in Avadi in Tamil Nadu. Strike was almost total in DRDO Labs in Hyderabad.

Strike was near total in most of the major ports in the country. It was total in Chennai, Tuticorin, Visakhapatnam and near total in Mumbai, Cochin, Paradeep, Marmagoa, Mangalore, Kandla, JNPT and Haldia ports and 60% in Kolkata port.

Private organised sector workers also participated magnificently in the strike.

Gurgaon industrial area witnessed massive strike. All the factories including those of multinational corporations like Maruti and Honda in the entire industrial area Gurgaon, Manesar, Banola and Dharuheda were closed with the workers going on strike and holding massive demonstrations and rallies. Strike was near total in all the industrial areas of Delhi, Ghaziabad, Noida & Hapur. Massive demonstrations were held and effigies of the government were burnt in several industrial centres.

In Tamil Nadu, workers of major industries including multinational companies like Ashok Leyland, Enfield India, Ennore Foundries, MRF, Eveready Industries, Sriram Fibres, ATC Tyres participated in the strike fully. Lakhs of workers in industrial clusters of small and medium factories in different parts of state participated in the strike en masse. The garment manufacturing centre in the state, Tiruppur witnessed a total strike with a bandh like situation prevailing. In the cooperative textile mills, NTC mills, Dalmia cements, the strike was total.

In Karnataka workers of major multinational companies like Toyota, Volvo 2 units, Bosch 1 unit, Kirloskar, Federal Mogul, ITC, joined strike fully.

Manufacturing activity was totally stalled in Telangana with workers in all the 54 industrial clusters in the state fully participating in the strike. The workers in the industrial clusters of small and medium units of Indore and Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh also participated in the strike

The strike was total among the medical and sales representatives. Around 3 lakhs medical and sales representatives all over the country in all the 344 local units including the north eastern region participated in the strike as per the preliminary reports.

Lakhs of plantation workers participated in the strike, including in West Bengal where they had to brave police repression. In the Terai and Doars areas of Jalpaiguri district, only 8 tea gardens functioned normally out of the total 210 gardens. 175 tea workers including 100 women were arrested along with their leaders. In Sonagachi gardens, workers successfully resisted the attempts of the police to apply force. Strike in the plantations of Kerala and Tripura was total. It was successful in Karnataka. It was partial in Assam and Tamil Nadu.

The 2^nd September strike crossed past records in the participation of the unorganised workers and scheme workers. Hundreds of lakhs of workers including the head load workers in almost all the states, the mandi workers, the rickshaw pullers, construction workers, brick kiln workers, shop employees, beedi workers etc all over the country participated in the strike on their demands of minimum wages and social security. In most of the states mandis wore a deserted look.

Lakhs of municipal workers, panchayat workers and local body employees participated in the strike including the conservancy workers in major cities like Chennai.

More than 20 lakhs anganwadi employees, an equal number of mid day meal workers, around 4 lakhs ASHAs and lakhs of other scheme workers including the teaching and non teaching staff of NCLP schools, para teachers under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan etc participated in the strike demanding recognition as workers, minimum wages and pension and other social security benefits.

Massive rallies were held at the local and district headquarters in several states in which thousands of workers including large numbers of women workers participated. Rallies though planned could not be held in some states like Himachal Pradesh due to lack of transport.

A very significant aspect of this strike was the total support from the different toiling sections of the society and the common people, the peasants, the agricultural workers, the artisans etc all over the country. The Bhoomi Adhikar Andolan, a broad alliance comprising hundreds of organisations across the country including the All India Kisan Sabha etc, the All India Agricultural Workers’ Union, and the All India Kisan Mahasabha extended their total support to the strike. Crores of people not only expressed their support to the demands raised by the working class but also extended their solidarity by participating in massive demonstrations, rail roko and rasta roko in many parts of the country. A large number of them were women. The Left parties too extended their full support to the strike.

                                                           PRESS STATEMENT

CONFEDERATION OF CENTRAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES AND WORKERS.

First Floor, North Avenue Post Office,

New Delhi. 110 001.

Website: confederationchq.blogspot.com.

E mail. confederation06@yahoo.co.in

confederationhq@gmail.com

Dated: 2^nd September, 2015.

PRESS STATEMENT

The initial report received at the Confederation CHQ indicates the participation of about 8.5 lakh Central Government employees in today’s general Strike action of the Indian working Class. Earlier endorsing the call of the Central trade Unions, the Confederation of CGE and workers had called upon the Central Government employees to take part in the one day strike to compel the Govt. to withdraw the anti-people and anti-worker neo-liberal policies pursued since 1991. The report states that the offices of the Postal, Income Tax Ground Water Board, Survey of India Geological Survey of India, , Indian Bureau of Mines. Offices of the Census Departments, ISRO, Atomic Energy, Medical Store Depots, Film Institute of India, Offices of the AGMARK, various other autonomous scientific and research institutions, etc remained closed for the whole day and the work completely paralysed. The strike also paralysed the functioning of various offices of the Indian Audit and Account Department, Printing and Stationary, Census, CPWD, Civil Accounts, Indian Standards Institute etc. Total civilian employees of various Defence Organisations and Defence Accounts Departments participated in the strike.   The strike in which lakhs of workers participated has cautioned the Government of the consequences of scrapping the various labour welfare legislations intended to please the Corporate houses.

The Central Government employees were particularly unhappy over the denial of the wage revision for the past 5 years, non grant of interim relief and merger of DA, the continued outsourcing and contractorisation of Governmental functions, denial of the Statutory defined benefit pension to the fresh appointees and above all the closure of the negotiating forum- JCM- since 2010. The Finance Minister’s statement in the Parliament while laying the Medium term Expenditure Framework Statement pegging the additional revenue expenses on account of salary, pension etc for the year 2016-17 at just 5% more than 2015-16 was indicative of the nugatory attitude of the Government towards its own employees’ genuine demand for wage revision. It has no doubt acted as a catalyst to the enthusiastic participation of the employees in the Strike action.

The Strike was total in Kerala, Tamilnadu. Maharashtra, Punjab ,Telengana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Chattisgrah, MP, Orissa, West Bengal Assam, North Eastern States w and 80 to 90% in other States.

The Confederation secretariat congratulates the employees and their leaders, who undertook intensive Campaign to make the strike such a grand success. The Confederation Secretariat while thanking all its members for their whole hearted participation in the Strike and making it an unprecedented success, places on record the gratitude and appreciation for the yeomen efforts of the various Central Government Pensioners organizations in supporting the strike action.

KKN. KUTTY

President,

Confederation of Central Govt. Employees and Workers

2^nd September 2015

Press Release  

                                              

CITU Salutes the Working Class of India for the Historic Strike

On 2^ndSeptember 2015

The Centre of Indian Trade Unions congratulates and salutes the working class of India for the unprecedented and historic strike today against the anti worker, anti people and anti national policies of the BJP led NDA government.

Over 15 crores workers employed in almost all the sectors of the country’s economy covering the organised and unorganised sectors, public and private sectors, the central and state government sectors and the scheme workers participated in this strike. Protest demonstrations, rasta roko and rail roko were held across the country in which thousands of workers participated.

Police was used on the workers in several states. The Trinamool government in West Bengal used the brutal force of its police as well as its goons to physically attack the workers on strike. In fact attack by Trinamool goons to foil the strike started at least three days before the strike date and during this period several processions and meetings for strike campaign in different places in the state were attacked, offices were ransacked and many activists were injured. On the day of the strike, police along with Trinamool goons carried on brutal attacks on the strikers and TU activists throughout the state severely injuring many of the activists including senior leaders.  Workers and their leaders were arrested in several places in the state. Police resorted to severe lathi charge and arrests in many other states including Assam, Jammu and Kashmir etc. CITU congratulates the workers, particularly in West Bengal for heroically resisting these attacks and participating in the strike in a massive manner.

In many states, including West Bengal, Kerala, Tripura, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, many districts of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh etc the strike turned into a virtual bandh with road transport and normal activities coming to a grinding halt. The manufacturing activities in several industrial clusters across the country totally stopped due to the strike.

The unprecedented response to the strike reflects the anger and resentment of the workers against the attacks on their working and living conditions and the attempts to deny their basic rights by amending the labour laws to benefit the national and multinational corporations. It reflects the anger at ignoring their basic demands that were being raised since the last several years. It also reflects the determination of the working class to fight back the nefarious design of the corporate-serving Govt at the centre to impose slavery on them through draconian changes in all labour laws. Through this strike the working class of India has warned the government that it was not going to take lying down the attacks on its basic rights. It also warned the government that policies that mortgage the country to corporate interests, both foreign and domestic will not be tolerated.

The CITU extends its gratitude to the massive support and solidarity extended to the strike by various sections of the people including kisans, agricultural workers, adivasis etc.

CITU demands the government to scrap all the anti worker amendments to the labour laws and take immediate concrete action on all the demands raised by the joint trade union movement.

It calls upon the working class to further strengthen the unity at the grass root level and be prepared for more intense struggles if the government chooses to continue with its policies.                                                           

                                                                                              Issued by,

(TAPAN SEN)

General Secretary

CITU