Hyderabad: After the Telangana power utility management terminated 200 of their artisans from service on Wednesday, the staff affiliated with the Telangana Vidyut Employees Union and Ittehad Electricity Contract Employees Union called off their strike.
Officials from the department informed that there was no impact of the strike on power generation, transmission and distribution in the state, although 20 percent abstained from duties on Tuesday.
It was revealed at a meeting where the TS TRANSCO and GENCO chairman D Prabhakar Rao and TSSPDCL chairman G Raghuma Reddy held a discussion with AIMIM Malakpet MLA Ahmed Balala.
Balala who is heading the Itehad Electricity Contract Employees Union said that they have agreed to call off the strike unconditionally and the employees would join duties immediately.
Balala further said that the power utility management had agreed to look into the demands of the artisans and resolve them at the earliest.
They have called off their strike after the department officials agreed to initiate the process of reinstating the 200 artisans whose services were terminated on Tuesday.
“AIMIM would take up the issues of the artisans with the state government and try to ensure justice for them,” said MLA Balala.
Cause of the employees’ protest
The first massive dharna was 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.
Telangana Vidyut Employees Union and Ittehad Electricity Contract Employees Union served a notice to go on strike from Tuesday, April 24 in support of six demands for artisans in power utilities.
The 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.
However, with 22,500 artisans working in the power utility department, the chairman and managing director of TS TRANSCO and GENCO, D Prabhakar Rao 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.
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