Central Secretariat Service officials warn of strike over pending demands

Annoyed with the delayed promotions , the officials of Central Secretariat Service (CSS) on Wednesday said that they will go on strike from May 15 if their demands including the delay in promotions are not sorted out.

In a letter written to the Secretary of Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), the CSS officials gave an ultimatum saying that if their demands are not met, they will go on strike from May 15.

The officials have been demanding an expedited decision on promotion of cadre officers which is delayed by six years.

They also said that as a mark of protest from Wednesday, they would work in slow mode, will not be sitting in the office beyond 6 p.m., and will attend office in black clothes once a week.

According to CSS officials, there are 6,210 officers in the rank of Section Officer, Under Secretary, Deputy Secretary and Director while a total of 1,839 posts are lying vacant in these officers' cadres.

These employees have been complaining that nearly 30 per cent positions in the CSS are vacant in middle to senior management rank in various Central government ministries as the DoPT has not promoted officials of the CSS cadre in the past six years.

An employee on the condition of anonymity said that they have petitioned the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to issue promotion orders as many officials have retired in recent years that deprived them of enhanced salary and pension benefits.

Considered as the backbone of the Central government offices as most of the files, documents and orders are processed by these officers, their promotions have been stuck on the pretext of pending court cases.

However, with an aim to ease the crisis, the DoPT promoted 2,770 officials on an ad hoc basis recently as out of 4,400 officers, more than 60 per cent have been working on an ad hoc promotion.

--IANS

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