Andhra employee unions withdraw strike call after state govt concedes to some demands

The government softened its approach after a massive show of strength by the teachers and employees on Vijayawada streets

Andhra Pradesh government employee unions on Sunday withdrew their strike call after “satisfactory” talks with the Jaganmohan Reddy administration.

Lakhs of government employees including teachers, secretariat staff were to go on an indefinite strike from Monday in protest against the recent pay revision.

The YSRCP government which took a tough stand earlier, softened its approach after a massive show of strength by the teachers and employees on the streets of Vijayawada on Thursday.

Braving the police curbs and detentions, thousands of employees gathered from across the state, in response to the Pay Revision Struggle Committee's “Chalo Vijayawada” call.

Following the rally, the government re-initiated talks and held discussions with the union leaders on Friday and Saturday.

The government made some concessions in regards with the Interim Relief, HRA slabs etc while promising to offer more when the state revenues improve.

On Sunday, PRC committee leaders met Chief Minister Reddy and thanked him “for accepting their demands despite the state's financial constraints.”

Speaking on the alterations and their implications on the finances, Reddy said that “exempting nine month of IR from 30 months puts an additional burden of Rs 5400 crore and similarly HRA from January another Rs 325 crore.”

“With all the recurring expenditures every year, this would incur an additional burden of Rs 1330 crore, to the earlier announced PRC expenditure of Rs 10,247 crore.”

The total pay revision cost works out to be about Rs 11,577 crore.

“Employees are an integral part of the government, we cannot operate without you,” Reddy told them while seeking their cooperation.

“State revenues fell sharply due to unfortunate circumstances (like Covid-19). Whereas the revenue was Rs 62,000 crore in 2018-19, it should have increased by 15 per cent to Rs 72,000 crore in 2019-20, but fell to Rs 60,000 crore. The decline continued,” the CM said.

Reddy said that his government is also working on the abolition of the Contributory Pension Scheme policy. The Chief Minister assured that the regularization of contract employees as per roster basis would happen.

Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath, government adviser (Public Affairs) Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy, Chief Secretary Sameer Sharma, and other officials were present.

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