Karnataka Secretariat employees to skip work on May 27

One section of the Karnataka secretariat employees will boycott work on Friday to protest the state government's move of "rationalising the workforce" by reducing staffers in the Vidhana Soudha, Vikasa Soudha and MS Building.

According to Karnataka Government Secretariat Employees Association president P Guruswamy, some 5,000 employees working in the secretariat and legislature will skip work on Friday.

Their grouse is with the government's plan to implement recommendations of the Karnataka Administrative Reforms Commission-2.

Apart from group 'C' and 'D' workers, under secretaries and other officials will also join the protest as their role will be reduced to that of case workers, Guruswamy said.

He said that the state government had not reached out to them to address their concerns. "For now, we have organised a one-day bandh. If the government goes ahead with the Administrative Reforms Committee-2 recommendations to reduce government staff, we will boycott work indefinitely in the coming days," Guruswamy said.

The government is implementing the commission's recommendations without even issuing a government order, he said. The Commission has recommended 'rationalising' the workforce at government offices by scrapping non-essential posts.