33,000 Rly. employees to strike work from July 11

Source: www.thehindu.com

Thirty three thousand employees of the South Western Railway (SWR) ‘will not report to duty’ from July 11 in response to the indefinite strike call given by the National Joint Council of Action (NJCA) to press for various demands of Central government employees.
Addressing presspersons along with Zonal President of SWR Mazdoor Union R.R. Naik here on Tuesday, Zonal General Secretary and convenor of NJCA A.M. D’Cruz said that the strike had become inevitable because of the ‘apathy’ of the Union government towards the demands of its employees.
Mr. D’Cruz alleged that instead of negotiating with the employees, the government was trying to use coercive methods to prevent them from participating in the strike.
He said that although the NJCA had waited for three months following an assurance by the Union Cabinet Secretary that the government would examine the report of the committee of secretaries constituted to examine the report of the Seventh Pay Commission, nothing had been done till date.
Regarding the proposed move by the Union government to give a 23.5 per cent hike as per the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission, Mr. D’Cruz said that NJCA had sought reconsideration of the recommendations and would not accept anything below 26 per cent hike.
He said NJCA had submitted a charter of 36 demands which included scrapping of national pension scheme and implementation of old pension scheme, outsourcing of railway and defence, filling up of vacancies, stopping amendments to labour laws and others apart from the demand for implementation of Pay Commission recommendations after reconsideration.
Mr. D’Cruz clarified that the strike would be carried out peacefully without causing any damage to railway property. The general public would be affected because of the strike but there was other option before the Central government employees, he said.