It has been announced by employees of the State-run Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) that they would be striking work for a day on 16th February to press for implementation of new pay-scales for them and also to demand payment of arrears of pay hike for the past 26 months.

TNEB employees say that wage revision was due to them from 01st December, 2015 but more than 26 months later, nothing has been done to implement the hike in pay or pay the arrears amount due to them.  CITU and BMS, the affiliated trade unions comprising TNEB employees, announced on 23rd January their decision to indulge in a day-long strike demanding the fulfillment of their wage-related requests.

Talks were held in the presence of Labour Commissioner between the Govt. officials and the trade union representatives. Ther talks hinted that a deal would be struck and a wage revision agreement would be signed by the 12th of February. However, instead of going ahead with the wage revision, the State announced unilaterally that the TNEB staff would be paid interim relief (IR) which meant wage won’t be revised.

In view of this, the trade unions have decided to strike work for a day on 16th February as planned earlier. Talks between the management and the unions haven’t yielded the desired results after which the TNEB staff confirmed their decision to go ahead with the strike on 16th February.