CITU to protest on Jan 5 over non-revision of wages

CHENNAI: CITU affiliated Central Organisation of Tamil Nadu Electricity Employees (COTEE) has announced that a strike will be held on January 5 to demand the filling of 58,000 vacant posts in Tangedco and seeking commencement of wage revision negotiations.

COTEE general secretary S. Rajendran said that the revised pay scale should be implemented for Electricity Board employees from December 1, 2019. "Even after three years, the administration has not started the negotiations for this. Three months back when the trade unions announced a protest, the minister met union representatives and assured to commence talks. Since then, nothing has happened," he said.

Rajendran said that a dharna will be held in front of the 13 Zone Chief Engineer's office on Dec. 22 and a strike will be held on Jan. 5 to urge the government and management to discuss and resolve the union's demands.

He said that lakhs of youth are unemployed in the state but the Tangedco refuses to fill up 58,000 vacant posts. Due to the huge number of vacancies at the field level, the workers are losing their lives every day, he said, demanding that 5,000 persons who got selected in the gangman trainee selection should be recruited. have been released while hiring.

Apart from the demand for wage revision talks, he said that they wanted the Tangedco to stop outsourcing of permanent jobs and scrap the board proceeding-2 which denies the benefits enjoyed by the corporation employees for long years. He also demanded that the gangman trainees should be made to work on a fixed shift basis and they should be made to work for long hours.