AP staff unions join hands to step up fight over pay revision


PTI | Vijayawada | Updated: 20-01-2022 19:32 IST | Created: 20-01-2022 19:32 IST
AP staff unions join hands to step up fight over pay revision
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Teachers marched on the streets across Andhra Pradesh, defying a police clampdown, and organised picketing in front of the district Collectorates on Thursday demanding that the state government immediately withdraw the government orders (GOs) related to pay revision.

The Federation of Andhra Pradesh Teachers' Organisations spearheaded the agitation.

According to sources, key leaders of the teachers' associations were placed under house arrest in various cities.

In a significant development, the various employees' associations that so far have been treading their own path, came together on a single platform to carry out a united fight.

''We will meet on Friday morning in the Secretariat to discuss our united action plan. We will not back down till our main demand for withdrawal of the 'pay reversal' orders are met,'' the associations' leaders told reporters.

The state Secretariat, the seat of power at Velagapudi in capital city Amaravati, saw protest on an unprecedented scale by all employees, including outsourced and contractual, as they staged a lunch-hour demonstration.

Opposition parties threw their lot behind the agitating employees and demanded a rollback of the ''black orders'', prompting a counter-attack from the ruling YSR Congress party.

The AP Gazetted Officers' Joint Action Committee chairman K V Krishnaiah filed a writ petition in the High Court challenging the pay revision GOs, contending that they were in contravention to the provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014.

The petition named the AP Chief Secretary and the Union Home Secretary as respondents, on whom the court served notices on Thursday.

Krishnaiah, in his petition, cited clause 78 (1) of the APRA that said conditions of service applicable immediately before the appointed day shall not be varied to the disadvantage of any person except with the previous approval of the Central government.

"The state government's latest GOs drastically cut the house rent allowance, besides scrapping the city compensatory allowance. The state government is not empowered to do that and deprive the staff of benefits," he contended.

The employees' outcry notwithstanding, the state government brought in a new software module to facilitate salary payment as per the revised scales of pay from February.

Finance Special Chief Secretary Shamsher Singh Rawat issued a memo to the treasury officers and pay and accounts officers to immediately complete data entry in accordance with the revised pay scales.

The AP Treasury Services Association claimed the Finance Department authorities were exerting pressure on the treasuries staff to prepare (salary) bills as per the new scales and refused to comply with the orders.

In a statement, Association president G Ravi Kumar took strong exception to this and demanded that the government explain the rationale behind, at a time when all the employees were up in arms against the pay revision.

He demanded that the Finance Department stop pressuring the treasury staff to prepare the new salary bills and roll back the controversial orders.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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