Unions meet FM, seek another Pay Commission

The unions have decided to go on strike on January 20 if the EPF rate was not brought back from 8.5 per cent to 9.5 per cent. It was only a couple days back that the labour ministry notified the new EPF rate of 8.5 per cent.

The demand for a Sixth Pay Commission comes at a time when the government, especially at the state level, are yet to get recover from the impact of the Fifth Pay Commission which has thrown state finances out of order.

Added to this, during their two-hour-long meeting with the Finance Minister, they disagreed with the government8217;s stand to disinvest government shares in profitable public sector companies and rather wanted the Finance Minister to crack down on conspicous consumption to raise resources even for social sector spending.

In their opinion, they wanted the government to focus on reviving sick public sector companies. The Finance Minister told the unions that the government had already spent about Rs 2,000 crore towards this end and that the disinvestment in profitable PSUs was part of the Common Minimum Programme.