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Tamil Nadu employees, teachers
end strike

With only two days left for Diwali, government employees and teachers in Tamil Nadu called off their 10-day long strike after talks with Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Friday evening.

The employees will return to work on Tuesday, after taking off for Diwali on Monday.

It is a comedown for the employees, but the government, too, seems to have relented after witnessing thousands of strikers, including women, fill up the state's prisons.

According to M Balasubramaniam, president of the federation of striking employees' unions, the government will pay the four per cent hike in dearness allowance in cash. It had announced the hike on the eve of the strike, but said three per cent would be paid in cash and the remaining would be credited to the provident fund of the employees.

The government has also promised to withdraw all cases filed against the strikers, and release those who have been taken into custody. The 10-day absence will be treated as extraordinary leave and no action will be taken against the employees either under the service rules or under the Essential Services Maintenance Act, Balasubramaniam said.

He said the "strike is not a victory. But it is not a failure either".

It was the first time that the government had called them for talks, and that too at the chief ministerial level, he said. The employees hoped that the government would treat their demands sympathetically, he added.

The call for a hike of four per cent in dearness allowance was only one of the 15 demands. Despite a brave show by the unions, the government seems to have succeeded in bringing them down to their knees.

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