TS to pay for strike period

Sakala Janula Samme may become paid leave for state employees

After increasing salaries of employees beyond their expectations, the Telangana government is all set to come out with yet another bonanza for employees soon.

It will treat the 42-day strike period of TS employees as part of Sakala Janula Samme (mass indefinite strike) demanding creation of Telangana state in Sept. 2011 as “on duty”.

The government is exploring various options to beat the “no work no pay” rule prescribed by the courts earlier for the purpose. Employees will get back their Earned Leaves for 42 days, which they utilised to claim full salary in 2011.

They can again utilise these ELs or encash them and those who were not eligible for ELs and lost their salaries then would be refunded the salary amount now. TNGO honorary president G. Deviprasad and president K.Ravinder Reddy along with other employees’ leaders met Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday and brought the issue to his notice.

Mr Rao who responded favourably to this issue directed the officials of the law department to take steps in this regard at the earliest.

Following this, the law officials on Thursday sent a file in this regard to the CMO for approval. Orders treating the strike period as “on duty” are expected in a day or two after Mr Rao gives his nod.

Sources said the law department has recommended to the government to treat the strike period as ‘special casual leaves’ instead of ‘on duty’ saying that it may land the government in legal problems if ‘ on duty’ is mentioned in the orders.