Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government has started facing pressure from government employees, as the state gears up for the assembly elections, with multiple sections of staff announcing protests and strikes.
JACTO-GEO has announced plans to go on strike from the fourth week of December, pressing for a 10-point charter of demands, including the restoration of the old pension scheme. The administration has adopted a two pronged approach to deal with the situation — opening negotiations with some unions while using legal and administrative measures to contain other protests.
The panel, comprising ministers E V Velu, Thangam Thennarasu and Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi, will hold talks with JACTO-GEO representatives in Chennai on December 22. He said the government had appointed 1,200 nurses on a regular basis for newly opened medical colleges since coming to power and that regular recruitment would continue as vacancies arise, based on seniority.
Responding to the protest, health minister Ma Subramanian said the nurses were appointed on contractual terms, which did not provide for regular pay scales. In response to the indefinite strike call by the Joint Action Council of Tamil Nadu Teachers Organisations and Government Employees Organisations (JACTO-GEO), an umbrella body of state employees, the government has constituted a three-member ministerial panel. At the same time, parallel protests have surfaced from other sections of government staff.