Tangedco staff protest finance secy order on DA hike

CHENNAI: Tangedco workers across the state on Monday protested against the delay in the dearness allowance hike and also the latest Finance Secretary letter to the public sector companies not to extend benefits of the government employees to the PSU employees automatically.

About 1,000 workers gathered outside the Tangedco headquarters on Anna Salai in protest against it. The protest was held amid the state government announcing (on August 16) a hike in the dearness allowances for the government employees, pensioners and family pensioners from 31 per cent to 34 per cent with retrospective effect from July 1.

Days after the state government announcement, the Finance Secretary, in a letter dated August 18, to the chief executive officers of all state public sector undertakings and statutory boards directed the officials to that only the government orders specifically to the PSUs by the finance department should be placed before the board of directors for adoption or the prior permission of the government should be obtained to adopt the government orders which are applicable to the government employees.

Finance Secretary N Muruganandam said that it is also equally well settled that the employees of the government company are not civil servants and so are not entitled to the protection afforded by Article 311 of the Constitution of India.” Corporate bodies are independent entities and their employees cannot claim parity with Government employees and the state government would be well within its right, to deny similar benefits to the employees of corporate bodies, which are financially unviable, or if their activities have resulted in financial losses,” he added.

Jaishankar of Central Organisation of Tamil Nadu Electricity Employees said that the state government has already stopped the dearness allowance for six months, while the Central government has already hiked the dearness allowance for its employees from 34 to 38 per cent.