The Kerala state government on Monday warned the public servants from participating in the 48-hour long general strike and declared that amid the strike, the absence of the employees without valid reason would be treated as ‘dies non period’. This is after the Kerala High Court issued an order to the state denying leaves to employees and teachers on strike days except for unavoidable reasons.
The Kerala HC on Monday slammed government officials for participating in strikes, observing that it was illegal for government officials to participate in strikes, citing Employees Service Rules.
‘Dies non-period’ is the one that cannot be treated as a duty for any purpose. It does not constitute a break in service. But the period treated as ‘dies non’ does not qualify as service for pensionary benefits or increments.
The court on March 28 was hearing the public interest petition filed by Chandra Choodan Nair, a retired government employee from Thiruvananthapuram. He had urged the Court to declare the two-day strike illegal. The order issued by Chief Secretary VP Joy read that pay of the employees for the days on which the strike is taking place would be withheld from their next month’s (April) salary. It stated that people indulging in violence during the strike days would be prosecuted.
Following Kerala HC’s orders, disciplinary proceedings to be initiated against those employees who abstain from work by participating in the strike that started today, and will continue tomorrow, March 29, as part of National Level Strike”: Govt of Kerala pic.twitter.com/OToK7WaxEf
— ANI (@ANI) March 28, 2022
The Court further directed the KRCTC managing director and district collectors to ensure sufficient vehicles are operated to allow the government servants to attend duty. “We direct the government of Kerala to issue appropriate orders forthwith to prevent government servants from engaging in the strike and also to issue necessary orders forthwith to all the heads of the departments to ensure that Rule 86 of the Government Servants’ Conduct Rules, 1960, are not violated, and in case of violation, to take appropriate action. The government should issue appropriate orders to enable the operation of vehicles to enable government servants to attend duty”, a division bench of Justice S Manikumar and Shaji P Chaly was quoted.
The bench stated in its order that the government must not only protect the citizens but also continue with all the public work as expected. The two-day strike that was called by the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), the joint forum of trade unions began on Monday with people actively participating to protest against the Central government’s policies allegedly affecting workers, farmers, and people in general.
While Trade unions’ strike had a negligible impact across India, it had struck normalcy in Kerala
According to the reports, banking services and public transport were affected on March 28 as strikes were held in a few states, with Kerala being one of them, where the ruling left is often regarded as sympathetic to the cause of bandhs and strikes. Offices across the state reported only thin attendance and all the educational institutions remained closed. However, the essential services remained largely unaffected.
On Tuesday, marking the second day of the nationwide strike, bank unions also joined the strike to protest against the government’s move to privatize two public sector banks as announced in Budget 2021-22. With this banking services have been impacted partially and the employees have failed to report for duty. Also, the public transport services across the state have been hit with only 33 per cent of the buses run by the state transport corporation.
The trade unions are protesting against the Central government’s policies allegedly affecting workers, farmers, and people in general. The decision comes following a meeting on March 22 where the trade unions had said that they would protest against the Centre’s ‘anti-worker, anti-farmer, anti-people and anti-national policies.’
