As talks with protesting clerks fail, Haryana invokes ‘no-work-no-pay’ principle
As per the letter issued by the office of Haryana chief secretary to the additional chief secretary of finance department, some categories of employees, predominantly clerks, have been on strike for some time, causing a huge convenience to the public and thus, it has been decided that the no-work-no-pay principle may be applied on them.
With the third round of talks with protesting clerks ending in a stalemate, the Haryana government on Thursday decided to invoke the “no-work-no-pay” principle and not release the salaries of the agitating employees for the period that they remain on strike.
As per the letter issued by the office of Haryana chief secretary to the additional chief secretary of finance department, some categories of employees, predominantly clerks, have been on strike for some time, causing a huge convenience to the public and thus, it has been decided that the no-work-no-pay principle may be applied on them.
Around 15,000 clerks associated with various government departments in Haryana had started an indefinite strike on July 5. They even sat on hunger strike at the district headquarters.
The government wielded the stick as the talks between the representatives of the Clerical Association Welfare Society (CAWS) and the government failed to yield any result with the clerks remaining adamant on their demand for pay revision from ₹19,900 to ₹35,400.
Haryana chief minister’s officer on special duty (OSD) Jawahar Yadav said the talks between the government and clerks were held in a positive atmosphere and the talks may continue in future.
He said opposition parties like Congress and Aam Aadmi Party were supporting the protesting clerks and demanding that their pay scales be revised. “The government has already announced to increase it to ₹21,700, which will be the highest among the neighbouring states, and the chief minister has also given his consent to it but the government cannot increase it to ₹35,400,” said Yadav.
“We request them to return to their work by Monday, otherwise the government will have to take stern action as per law,” said the OSD.
Yadav said there were also some discrepancies in the promotions of clerks and that these need to be resolved.
Meanwhile, CAWS president Vikrant Tanwar said the
indefinite strike will continue till the government accepts their demand to revise their pay scales to ₹35,400.