Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd (GUVNL) has threatened to take strict disciplinary action under Gujarat Essential Commodity Act 1972 against the staff members found involved in illegitimate strike or any demonstration against the management.

This comes after the GEB Engineer’s Association (GEA) threatened to go on an indefinite strike from July 27 to press for the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations.

Terming the GEA’s demands unacceptable, the GUNVL management has said that most of the officers and employees and affiliated companies have welcomed the revised pay hike and therefore there is no point why the GEA should go on strike. The Gujarat Energy and Petrochemicals department has banned strike under the provisions of the law so as not to disrupt the electricity production, transportation and distribution.

There are two major demands of the GEA: the association is asking the management to restore leave of class 1 and 2 officers from eight to 22, which was there before the revised salary was announced. The second important demand is of payment of arrears of overtime.

The GUVNL employees had fought for the pay hike for almost a year and held some 13 meetings with the management. The management on July 1 passed the standing orders for revision of the salary of the class 4, 5 and 6 employees as per the recommendation of the Sixth Pay Commission.

However, in the new orders, the leave of class 1 and 2 officers were curtailed to just eight days. The management was of the view that the officers should get equal number of leave as there junior officers and other employees get.

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