Chennai: The Southern Railway Mazdoor Union (SRMU) has decided to become part of the indefinite nationwide strike work by railway employees starting from July 11 raising various demands.
The union said it was forced to join the strike because of the lackadaisical attitude of the Union Government in addressing grievances of railway workers.
In a statement here, union president, C A Raja Sridhar, and general secretary, N Kannaiah, said the response of the government on the charter of demands submitted in December 2015 has been very disappointing and casual.
“Consequently, the organisations of the central government employees - Railways, Defence, Postal, Income Tax, Central Customs and Excise — whose number is over 32 lakh have taken unanimous decision to go on indefinite strike from July 11,” the statement said.
Demands include raising minimum wage of Rs 26,000 and correspondingly improve multiplier factor for pay fixation, scrapping the New Pension Scheme (NPS) and restore old pension scheme to be made applicable to those employees on and after January 1, 2004, scrap report of Bibek Debroy Committee and implement positive recommendations of High Power Committee and recall FDI notification of Government of India dated August 22, 2014, in construction, ope-ration and maintenance of Indian Railways.
