Hyderabad: After warning employees to call off their strike and get back to work, Telangana power utility management terminated 200 artisans from their service on Tuesday.
The remaining employees were asked to resume their duties by Wednesday morning, failing which they would also face termination.
Telangana Vidyut Employees Union and Ittehad Electricity Contract Employees Union had served a notice to go on strike from Tuesday in support of six demands for artisans in power utilities.
While 22,500 artisans work in the power utility department, the chairman and managing director of TS TRANSCO and GENCO, D Prabhakar Rao has said that the strike did not have any significant effect on the power supply in the state.
Prabhakar Rao also said that the management made alternative arrangements in response to the call given by the unions and took necessary steps to ensure uninterrupted power supply across Telangana.
“All the artisans in Genco and Transco attended their duties, while 80 percent of them working in discoms (electricity distribution companies) were present,” said the chairman.
“Despite an agreement signed on April 19 by the trade unions before the Joint Commissioner of Labour under the Industrial Disputes Act, the artisans deciding to go on strike was illegal,” he said.
He also said that employees were given prior warning of termination from service if they fail to rejoin their duties from Wednesday.
Telangana Vidyut Employees Union proposed a strike on the revision of pay and allowances of employees, artisans and pensioners, implementation of GPF in place of EPF to employees recruited between February 1, 1999, and August 31, 2004, on a par with state government employees and several other issues related to employees and artisans.
Massive Dharna held on March 24
After a massive dharna carried out at Vidyut Soudha on March 24 which saw the participation of around 30,000 employees, the management invited unions for a round of talks on various demands.
However, by the end of the meeting, the management stuck to their earlier decision of offering a six percent hike in the salaries of electricity employees.
JAC leaders said that employees were disappointed over the stand of management on the pay revision commission, which has been pending since April 1 last year.
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