First Reply To All Points Riased By Us Regarding EDSO-2021 and Corporatization, Federations Of Defence Civilian Employees Tell Secretary (DP)

After the promulgation of EDSO-2021 by the President of India banning strike in the Ordnance Factories and other Defence Establishments, the Federations unanimously passed a Resolution condemning the draconian ordinance 2021 and demanded for its withdrawal. The Resolution was forwarded to Shri Rajnath Singh / Defence Minister and on his direction Secretary (DP) convened an emergency meeting with the Federations on 06.07.2021 through Video Conference. Senior Leaders of AIDEF, INDWF and BPMS participated in the discussions. The Federations raised the following major issues in the Meeting which are given below for the benefit of the viewers of www.indianpsu.com –

1) The EDSO-2021 promulgated to handle an Industrial Dispute is draconian and it is not acceptable to us since the provisions are draconian like if some employee wanted to exempt himself from Overtime due to his personal problems it can also be treated as a strike. Similar provisions are there up to dismissal without inquiry, imprisonment etc. Discussions on any industrial dispute/charter of demands can be only in a congenial atmosphere. Not by hanging sword on the head of the employees about their existence, their future and crushing their democratic rights. Therefore, at the outset the EDSO-21 needs to be withdrawn.

2) The conciliation proceedings initiated by the CLC(C) is not yet over. The CLC(C) must have recorded failure report, but on the failure report in accordance with ID Act 1947 the Government has to refer the dispute raised by the Federations for adjudication. On this Labour Ministry has not yet taken any decision. Pending this, decision of the Labour Ministry the Cabinet taking a decision on the disputed issue of Corporatisation is a clear violation of the ID Act 1947. Therefore the decision of the Government needs to be reconsidered and withdrawn.

3) The Honble RM in his statement has told that all the existing service condition and benefits of the employees would be protected, whereas the Joint Secretary(LS) in the conciliation proceedings very carefully stated that employees service conditions would not be adversely affected, which otherwise means service condition would be affected after Corporatisation. The Cabinet decision that two years the employees would be on deemed deputation, after wards what will happen to them is not revealed by the Govt.

4) In the past two Government Departments namely the Telecom and Government Mint were corporatized not arbitrarily by the Government but based on a mutual agreement between the Government and the employees represented by their Trade Unions, which gave birth to BSNL and SPMCIL. Another Government Departments namely, All India Radio & Doordarshan were converted to Prasar Bharti Corporation based on a Parliament Act where the employees were given the protection of retaining their status of Central Government Employees till their retirement. In the case of Ordnance Factories neither there is an agreement nor any such protection given to Prasar Bharti is given. Therefore we are justified to reject Corporatisation.

5) With regard to ensured workload for the survival of the Corporation, nothing has been mentioned. Apart from this breaking the organisation in to 7 pieces is going to result only in its liquidation very fast. Examples of many public sectors which have been made sick by the Government and thereafter how the assets were sold etc., were brought to the notice of Secretary(DP) and the guarantee of the survival of the 7 Corporation were also questioned by us.

6) The future of more than 50,000 employees who were recruited on or after 01/01/2004 in the NPS scheme and do not have any guarantee about their future guaranteed pension has also been brought to the notice of Secretary(DP) and we demanded that they all deserves to be brought under CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972 i.e. Old Pension Scheme.

7) The Federations cannot compromise with any decision of the Government which takes away the existence of Ordnance Factories and any repercussions on the Ordnance Factory Employees service conditions, existing benefits and privileges and also the future benefits available to Central Government Employees / Defence Civilian Employees.

8) Finally we proposed since EDSO-2021 and Corporatisation decision is taken by the Cabinet, all the proposals put forth by the Federations may be brought to the notice of the Defence Minister and meeting with the EGOM/RM may be arranged, so that the meeting with RM can be fruitful and result oriented.

9) We also requested the Secretary (DP) that on all the issues raised by us we expect a point wise and specific written reply from the Government / MoD. On the basis of which the discussions can take place with Honble RM.

Responding to the above points raised by the representatives of the Federations, Secretary(DP) reiterated about the Government decision and stated that considering various situations in the country the Government has promulgated the EDSO-2021 as a preventive measure and it has not been enforced as of now. On this we reacted that since the Federations have not yet issued the Strike notice, how can the EDSO 2021 can be enforced by the Government After further discussions Secretary(DP) stated that all the points raised by the Federations would be brought to the notice of the Honble RM and thereafter meeting would be arranged with him to enable the Federations to put forth their view points further to the notice of the RM.