More than two lakh state government employees in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday launched an indefinite strike to press for various demands.
It affected the functioning of some departments. The employees launched the strike as a meeting between the representatives of employees and a team of ministers in Chennai on Tuesday yielded no result.
""A meeting was held in Chennai on Tuesday evening. Finance minister O Panneerselvam, three other ministers, and finance secretary K Shanmugam represented the government. We put forth our demands. But they told us that chief minister J Jayalalithaa would take a decision,"" Government Employees' Association chief R Balasubramanian told TOI.
Their demands included filling up of vacancies, fixing minimum wages for noon-meal scheme workers, reinstating the 12,000 panchayat union workers, and cancelling the new pension rules.
""There is a big problem with the pension scheme. More than 10,000 crore has been collected from four lakh government employees. But government has to invest 10% of the employee's pension and the money will be invested in the stock market. But the government has not done anything and we had given the government adequate notice ahead of the strike on this issue alone,"" Balasubramanian said.
The employees wanted the pending amount to be transferred to the general provident fund.
In Coimbatore, more than 1,500 government employees struck work and staged a protest at the south taluk office.