Ahead of an indefinite strike call on July 11 by 33 lakh central government employees, top Ministers of the NDA government urged the National Joint Action Committee (NJAC), representing railways, defence, postal and central government staff, to call off their stir plan and gave a verbal assurance that their demand for higher minimum wages and revision of the 2.57 fitment formula may be referred to a committee.

“There has been a small development. The deadlock has been broken. At 9.30 p.m. we were called at Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s residence for informal talks. Present there were Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu and his deputy Manoj Sinha. We told them that minimum wages should be raised and the fitment formula needs to be improved,” Shiva Gopal Mishra, Convenor of NJAC and General Secretary of railways’ largest union, All Indian Railwaymen’s Federation, said at a press conference.

‘False propaganda’ Terming the 7th pay panel “bonanza” as “false propaganda”, Mishra said: “We knew that minimum wage at ₹23,000/month would not happen, but media created a hype”. He said acceptance of ₹18,000/month does not arise, as currently, the minimum wage is ₹7,000 + DA, which comes to ₹15,750/month.”

However, the NJAC seems a divided house on the issue of deferring the strike on the basis of a verbal assurance. At a meeting held here on Friday, the NJAC, while welcoming the Centre’s move to invite them for talks, said it will meet again on July 6 to take a final call on the strike, with some sections demanding “formalisaton” of the Centre’s assurance.

Calling for a “negotiated settlement” of their demands, C Srikumar of the All India Defence Employees Federation said: “We will take a decision only after a written assurance is given to us.”

Meanwhile, when asked if rail unions, who had earlier voted for a strike with 95-96 per cent majority, had reached an agreement, Railway Board Chairman AK Mital said: “The vote ballot was held before the pay commission recommendations were accepted. So, let us not link the two…. You can pray nothing goes wrong so that services are not disrupted.”   

The NJAC’s demand charter, apart from modifications in the Seventh pay panel recommendations, includes withdrawal of 100 per cent FDI in defence and railways, roll back of the national Pension System, no privatisation/contractorisation of governmental functions among other things.

Related Topics