Trade unions call off protest after Tangedco agree to demands

CHENNAI: Trade unions in the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) called off their indefinite sit-in protest on Monday night after the management agreed to their demands for withdrawing the provisions affecting employees in the board proceedings dated April 12.

The protest was organised by the Joint Action Committee of the TNEB trade unions to draw the attention of the government.

Jaishankar, president of Central Organisation of Tamil Nadu Electricity Employee (COTEE) said that the board proceedings order No 2 curtailed the loans and advances, which were given earlier to the employees, and has now placed them for the approval of the State government.

He said that there were 58,000 vacancies across the State. “Instead of filling the vacancies through recruitment, the department has decided to fill them through outsourcing and re-deployment. Of this, as many as 32,000 vacancies are at the field level, because of which consumers would suffer,” he added.

As the employees continued the protest after office hours, Tangedco chairman and managing director Rajesh Lakhani held talks with the union representatives.

Following talks, Tangedco agreed to place demand for withdrawing the provisions that affect employees in its board meeting on September 28. On the demand for scraping redeployment, the utility said that it would be discussed during the ensuring wage agreement negotiations.