In the wake of the prominent Left-leaning service organisations raising their opposition to the salary cut, the Finance Minister has convened a meeting of representatives of these outfits on Tuesday. The vehement opposition from the employees against salary cut has forced the two pro-government outfits, the Kerala NGO Union and the Kerala Secretariat Employees Association, to express their dissent against the move.
In a letter to the Finance Minister, both the organisations sought to revisit the decision to deduct the salary of government employees. Earlier, pro-CPI outfit Joint Council of State Service Organisations had petitioned the minister in this regard.
Disgruntled government employees have been widely criticising the organisation leadership, especially on social media. The buzz is that the state government wouldn’t retract from the move to deduct salary of government employees every month in six installments. Instead, the employees might get a six-month relaxation to repay the loans against the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Onam advance.
The Opposition outfits are planning to strengthen the protests and move the court if the government plans to go ahead with the salary cut decision. The government maintains that the Centre’s GST compensation dues, free ration kit distribution and COVID relief measures had added to the financial crisis in the state.
