Thiruvananthapuram: The LDF government has swiftly backtracked from its controversial decision to raise the pension age of State PSU employees to 60. The decision to freeze the government order issued on October 29 was taken at the Cabinet meeting here on Wednesday.
The U-turn seems to have been necessitated by bitter and vociferous opposition from even the youth organisations of the Left parties. The DYFI State Secretariat had said that the decision would severely affect lakhs of young job aspirants in Kerala. It urged the government to withdraw the order immediately.
The youth wing of the CPI, AIYF, had said that the order marked an unacceptable deviation from the Left policy. AIYF state secretary T T Jisman said that this was a clear violation of the assurance the Chief Minister had earlier given youth organisations.
The Youth Congress was the first to take to the streets. It had taken out a Secretariat march on November 1, which eventually turned unruly with the police having to use water cannons. Youth Congress state president Shafi Parambil was highly provocative of the Left youth organisations. "You conduct marches asking for jobs and now when the retirement age has been raised where has your voice gone hiding? You have become slaves of Pinarayi Vijayan," Parambil said.
This clearly prompted DYFI to sharpen its opposition to the pension age rise. Moreover in 2012, when the pension age of government employees was increased to 56 from 55, the DYFI turned on the heat against the UDF government in the most vicious manner possible. Then, it demanded the resignation of no less than Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. The Left youth wing then said that Chandy was unfit to rule.
Raising the retirement age to Central PSU levels was based on the recommendation made by an expert committee led by the chairman of the Restructuring and Internal Audit Board (RIAB), N Sasidharan Nair. The October 29 order issued by the Finance Department said that the uniform pension age of 60 would apply to all PSUs other than the big three: KSEB, Kerala Water Authority and KSRTC.
Already, the pension age was 60 in eight PSUs, including Cashew Development Corporation and Travancore Titanium Products and Agro Industries Corporation. Also, in most of the 122 PSUs registered under the Companies Act, the existing pension age is 58.
The N Sasidharan Nair Committee, which was asked to recommend a uniform pension age for PSUs, pegged the pension age at 60 for two reasons. One, in eight PSUs the pension age was already 60. Therefore, in the process of finding a uniform age, it would not be right to bring it down from 60 as this would deprive some employees of this benefit. Two, the pension of those who had opted for a contributory pension scheme since 2013 was also 60.
