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No talks under threat: Punjab puts striking government staff on notice
Tensions flared after CM Bhagwant Mann abruptly cancelled a scheduled August 27 meeting with the Joint Coordination Committee of government employees.
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Escalating its confrontation with protesting staff, the Punjab government is preparing to clamp down on employees who participated in the statewide ‘maha-strike’ on August 27 by taking mass casual leave.
In a fresh communique sent to all administrative secretaries and department heads, the department of general administration directed disciplinary authorities to issue show-cause notices and initiate strict action under applicable service rules against staff marked absent without authorisation.
This follows an earlier directive issued by the department of personnel on August 27, ordering all special chief secretaries, additional chief secretaries, financial commissioners, principal secretaries and administrative secretaries to share the list of absentees with the department of general administration for further necessary action as per service rules.
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The punitive push comes right as employee unions plan to assemble at Ludhiana’s Bachat Bhawan on Sunday to map out their response.
Punjab and Haryana high court lawyer Yagyadeep, who specialises in handling legal cases related to civil services rules, meanwhile, said it will be a Herculean task for the state government to act against such a huge number of employees under service rules.
“The government has to follow certain steps, including chargesheeting the employees followed by a departmental inquiry. An ‘unauthorised absence’ will be treated as ‘dies non’ (day treated as non-duty), meaning no salary for that particular period under service rules, only if the employees failed to apply casual leave for that particular day (August 27),” he explained.
The bone of contention
Demonstrators are pushing for the release of an 18% dearness allowance backlog, the restoration of the Old Pension Scheme, and the regularisation of contractual workers. They are also seeking implementation of minimum wages for mid-day meal, ASHA and Anganwadi workers, restoration of the Assured Career Progression (ACP) scheme and extension of Punjab pay scales to employees recruited after July 17, 2020.
Tensions flared after chief minister Bhagwant Mann abruptly cancelled a scheduled August 27 meeting in Jalandhar with the Joint Coordination Committee of government employees, posting on X that while staff are part of the state’s family, “dialogue and strikes cannot proceed together”.
The shutdown, organised by the Punjab Sanjha Mulazam Manch—an umbrella group of over 150 unions—paralysed state administrative machinery as roughly 4 lakh staff took leave, backed by 3.5 lakh pensioners protesting at district, sub-divisional, and block offices.
As a result, government operations were hit, with outpatient department (OPD) services in state-run hospitals suspended, public transport disrupted, and schools and civic administrative offices closed.
Also Read | Government staffers’ strike cripples services across Punjab, Mann refuses to meet unions
Employees stand their ground
Unions have reacted angrily to the threat of disciplinary action, warning that intimidation will backfire. Gurnam Singh Virk, the president of the Punjab State Ministerial Services Union, declared that the government is mistaken if it believes warnings will crush employee resolve, adding that withdrawal of both the August 27 and August 29 letters will now be a prerequisite for any future negotiations.
Sukhchain Khera, convener of Punjab Sanjha Mulazam Manch, said the employees have not committed any crime as taking leave is their right under service rules.
“The list of unauthorised absentees will be limited as most employees had applied for casual leave before joining the August 27 protest, which was announced by employees in advance. The leaves were applied with the competent officials through Punjab government’s Integrated Human Resource Management System (iHRMS),” said Khera, adding that the government has resorted to intimidating tactics to threaten the employees.
Also Read | Employees’ statewide strike: Punjab grinds to a halt, public services disrupted, OPDs shut
An official familiar with the developments said the unauthorised absentees will be asked to submit their reply through show-cause notices, adding that salary for that particular day can be deducted in case of an unsatisfactory response.
Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, meanwhile, warned chief minister Bhagwant Mann against taking any action against striking employees, saying such a move could have serious political consequences.
In an informal interaction with reporters, Warring said protest was a democratic right of the employees as long as they were doing it lawfully. “You cannot intimidate and bully them using the threats of action,” he said. “It will have far-reaching consequences for the CM,” he warned.
