Ahmedabad, Sep 16 (PTI) Over 100 employees' unions in Gujarat on Friday called off their proposed 'mass casual leave' protest for Saturday after the state government accepted most of their demands.

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These unions represent teachers, panchayat health workers, revenue employees and have been protesting for the re-introduction of the old pension scheme (OPS) in the state.

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After a meeting with five ministers of the BJP government here, Samyukt Karmachari Morcha president Digvijaysinh Jadeja said the mass leave stir scheduled for Saturday had been called off as the government had accepted majority of their demands, except that of bringing back OPS.

However, the state government announced that employees who had joined before April 2005 will get benefits of the General Provident Fund and old pension scheme.

"State government employees were staging protests across the state over 15 major demands, mainly the old pension scheme. This demand still stands and we will continue to pursue it in the future. After state government accepted most other demands, we decided to call off the mass casual leave stir," Jadeja told reporters in Gandhinagar.

Bhikhabhai Patel, president of another umbrella organisation Rashtriya Samyukt Morcha, also expressed satisfaction and announced member unions will not participate in the mass CL programme on Saturday.

"Though our demand for OPS has not been accepted, we are happy that employees who had joined before 2005 will now get benefits under that scheme. This decision by the government will benefit nearly 70,000 state government employees," Patel told reporters.

After the meeting, government spokesperson and education minister Jitu Vaghani announced that employees who had joined before April 2005 will get benefits of the General Provident Fund and old pension scheme instead of the new pension scheme.

"Moreover, as sought by unions, the state government's contribution in CPF (contributory provident fund) has now been increased from 10 per cent to 14 per cent. In case of an employee's death, the state will give a family pension as per the rules formed by the Union government in 2009," said Vaghani.

He said a decision on the old pension scheme will be taken at an appropriate juncture as it is a policy matter.

Key demands that were accepted by the government include increasing medical allowance from Rs 300 to Rs 1,000 and implementing all the pending allowances on the lines of Central government employees under the 7th Pay Commission, said Vaghani.

In case of an employee's death during service period, the state government will now pay a lump sum compensation of Rs 14 lakh instead of current Rs 8 lakhs to the family.

In a relief to employees appearing for departmental exams for getting promotion, Vaghani announced there won't be a paper on English from here on.

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