LUCKNOW: The UP Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) is in a crisis yet again. This time the engineers have threatened to go on a two day work boycott beginning Friday in case they are not given revised salary as per the 6th Pay Commission of the Central government. The Mayawati government had in November announced that all state government employees would
be given a revised salary like Central government employee.
The engineers under the aegis of Vidyut Karamchari Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti, said that they were promised of being given the revised salary in the new year. “But the promise has been broken,” said convener of the association, Shailendra Dubey. He announced that all engineers would go on a 48 hours work boycott. However, the engineers in production and distribution units would continue to work.
“In case the demands are not met, the engineers of the two units would also join the agitation,” he said. “This means that in case a production or distribution unit develops a snag and power supply gets disrupted they would remain unattended. And it would be the responsibility of the management,” the association warned.
Managing director, UPPCL, Avnish Awasthi, when contacted by TOI, said that the demands of engineers are being studied. “We have requested the engineers not to go on a work boycott or strike,” he said.
A senior UPPCL official, however, said that the issue is contentious since no corporation in the state has been given salaries on the basis of 6th Pay Commission. The corporation is learnt to be running on a financial loss of over Rs 7,000 crore. The revised pay for engineers would mean an additional burden of Rs 1,600 crore in the form of arrears in the entire energy sector of UP. The monthly burden which would fall on the energy department because of the pay hike would be around Rs 35 crore.
An association member said that the arrears are far less considering Rs 16,000 crore proposed to be given to all other state government employees. UPPCL insiders said that the engineers had met with the principal secretary, VN Garg and UPPCL MD Avnish Awasthi a day before. “There it was agreed that the mode of payment of arrears should be at the discretion of the state government. But at least that should be agreed upon in principle,” a member said.
The fresh controversy comes amidst the UPPCL engineers raging demand to scrap the new promotion policy which promotes engineers in the reserved category. The engineers have already threatened to hand over mass-resignation in the second week of January in case the demand are not met.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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