TNGEA protest seeking govt move to outsource jobs

CHENNAI: Members of Tamil Nadu Government Employees Association on Tuesday staged a protest seeking quashing Government Order 152 of the Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department which proposed doing away with permanent jobs.

Through GO, 152 the State government proposed to reduce the number of postings in all the 20 Corporations of the State, except the Greater Chennai Corporation, from 35,000 to 3,417. This would affect the livelihood of the employees.

The TNGEA also demanded the State government to reintroduce the leave surrender encashment which was stopped during the Covid-19. It also demanded the government to implement the morning breakfast scheme through nutritious meal workers. The association urged the government to do away with the placement of workers on contract basis.

Meanwhile, the association has strongly opposed the government order 115 issued by the Human Resources Management Department

to constitute Human Resources Reforms Committee to explore the feasibility of empanelment of third-party agencies to outsource various categories of human resources, to study work output and compensation vis-à-vis the private sector.

The GO was issued in line with Finance and Human Resources Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan announcement in the Assembly. "We are in a difficult situation in which the expenditure on salaries and pensions is large, even while the vacancy rate is high. The current model of recruitment and training needs urgent reform. The pandemic has exacerbated the situation. This year, we started the process by amending some rules for both recruitment and training,” he told the Assembly.

TNGEA president Anbarasan said that the government order indicates the plans for outsourcing group-C posts after allowing 50 per cent of the group D category posts to remain vacant. "We urged the Chief Minister to intervene and scrap the GO," he demanded.