Mumbai, August 6: The government employees in Maharashtra have called for a three-day strike starting August 7 to press for their demands. Reports inform that nearly 17 lakh state government employees will join the protest that begins from Tuesday and would last till Thursday, August 9. The government employees have called for a strike to press for their demands for implementation of Seventh Pay Commission among others. The strike comes on the same day when trade unions have called for a nationwide transport strike.

According to the latest report by PTI, Around 1.5 lakh gazetted officers withdrew from the strike after a Government Resolution (GR) was issued ON Monday stating that the pending arrears of the Dearness Allowance (DA) for a period of 14 months will be paid to them. As per the GR, the arrears will be paid in the salaries of employees for August month. Another GR was issued stating that the 7th pay commission will be implemented from January 2019.

Employees of staff working in essential services like hospitals, fire brigade, water supply etc. have been directed not to join the strike or else provisions of Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) will be invoked against them.

According to a report by PTI, State Government Employees Organisation president Nitin Sardeshmukh informed that class III and class IV employees of Zilla Parishads, state hospitals, staff working at Mantralaya (Secretariat) will participate in the strike. "The employees of the Central government have been getting the benefits of the 7th pay commission since 2016. Seven state governments have implemented the pay commission,” Sardeshmukh added.

The State Government Employees Organisation president further informed that the employees are yet to receive the arrears accrued to them since the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission by the state government of Maharashtra. Sardeshmukh also claimed that a total of 1.85 lakh posts of class III and class IV employees are lying vacant in Maharashtra. Agitated by the functioning of the state government, Sardesmukh said the demand for filling up 30,000 posts on compassionate grounds is also not accepted by the state government.

Reports quoted him saying that around 30 to 40 per cent of total posts are lying vacant in hospitals and other essential services departments. Meanwhile, the Gazetted Officers Association today announced that they are withdrawing from the strike, an official in the General Administration Department (GAD) said.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 06, 2018 11:34 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).