Govt scraps leave, threatens service break : State employee strike today

State government employees take out a rally in Burdwan on Thursday in support of Friday’s strike for the DA parity

Pranesh Sarkar   |   TT  |  Calcutta   |   10.03.23  : The Bengal government has cancelled various kinds of leave for employees on Friday to foil their strike for parity in dearness allowance with the central staff and made it clear that a day’s salary and service will be docked if they don’t report for duty.

The directive issued by Nabanna on Thursday, some state government employees said, suggested that the stage was set for a confrontation between unions and the administration.

The Nabanna directive, a source said, was aimed at minimising the impact of the strike.

But the directive has given relaxation in four categories of leaves. An employee can get leave on Friday in case he/she is in hospital, if there is a death in the family, if someone hasn’t been attending office since Thursday or before because of an ailment, and if the person concerned is on maternity leave or earned leave or medical leave that was sanctioned before March 9.

“The state government is against any kind of strike and the policy hasbeen followed since 2011. This is why steps were taken to foil the strike,” said a senior official in the finance department, which issued the notification cancelling all kinds of leave on Friday.

The strike has been called by the joint forum of over 20 employees' unions, which include the CPM-backed Coordination Committee. The unions had already carried out pen-down agitations for two days before calling the strike.

A veteran state government employee said the strike call was the first of its kind since 1970. Unions of state government employees had called a strike in 1970 on a number of demands related to DA.

After 1970, the strikes in which state government employees had participated were all called by central trade unions.

The impending strike, multiple sources said, has apparently thrown a challenge to the state government as well as the ruling party for several reasons.

First, if a significant number of employees remain absent from offices on Friday, it will be clear that a majority of the staff is not happy with the government even though it has given at least 10 additional days of leave in a calendar year.

This will be an embarrassing situation for the Trinamul Congress as the party has been trying hard to bring an end to the influence of theCoordination Committee on the employees since it came to power in 2011.

“If a significant number of employees don’t attend offices, it will be clear that Trinamul has failed to gain the support of the employees,” said a source.

Second, the chief minister repeatedly tried to send a message that the government is sympathetic towards the demands of the employees but the DA could not be matched to that of the central staff only because of the financial crunch.

Now, if the unions can make the strike successful, it will be clear that the employees have no trust in the government.

“If employees are aggrieved, it will be tough to implement projects. Programmes like the Duare Sarkar were successful only because the employees worked overtime,” said a bureaucrat.

Third, if the strike leaves an impact on gram panchayat offices, the lowest level of governance that keeps day-to-day contact with people, it will be clear that the ruling party is somehow losing control of affairs at the grassroots.

Considering all these issues, the state government is leaving no stone unturned to foil the strike.

A message has been sent to district magistrates to ensure the presence of employees in all offices, including gram panchayats and schools.

“If offices in districts don’t function normally because of the strike, a wrong message will be sent. It will be assumed that the ruling party has lost control over the governance. No ruling party will like to face a situation like this,” said a source.

Sensing the weak areas of the government, the unions have laid stress on making the strike successful in panchayat offices which are not located close to power centres.

“We have enough strength there and all employees are aggrieved over the situation where they are getting 32 per cent less DA,” said a Coordination Committee leader.

The sources said even though the state government had decided to deal with the strike firmly, the unions were not in the mood to relent. “If the government takes unlawful steps against the employees for participating in the strike, we will go for an indefinite strike and fight the battle legally,” said a leader of the joint platform.