6 Day Week for Central Govt Employees issue – Dopt
rejects 6-day week schedule amid protests from women
Department
of personnel and training rejects 6-day week schedule amid protests from women
The
Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) will soon inform Parliament that
the government is not going back to a six-day week for its employees, even as a
senior representative of the central government employees said that women
employees were biggest opponents of any such change by the new government.
A senior
DoPT official told ET on Tuesday that all individual ministries would be
advised that before they ask employees to come to work on Saturdays, they were
expected to first consult the Joint Consultative Machinery set up in each
ministry which has representatives from the staff side before implementing the
same. There was confusion among government ranks last week after the road
ministry issued an order asking employees to report to work on all Saturdays
except the second. The same was apparently withdrawn after women employees in
the ministry took it up with transport minister Nitin Gadkari.
Employees
in many other ministries have also been asked informally to report to work on
Saturdays in case senior officials or the respective minister is in office. ET
has learnt that DoPT will soon inform Parliament that the government would
continue to work 5-days-a-week to end all speculation on this as it has received
questions on the same from MPs.
Shiva
Gopal Mishra, Secretary (staff side) of the National Council, JCM, told ET that
“no government ministry can enforce six-day week on employees without the
concurrence of the DoPT. “Not just DoPT’s concurrence, the government also
needs to consult employees on the same through the JCM mechanism.
There
will be no use of going back to a six-day week system as it will only raise
electricity costs of the government. Also, women employees form a sizeable
proportion of the workforce and they are strongly against any move to resort to
a six-day week,” Mishra, who is also general secretary, All India Railwaymen’s
Federation, told ET.
Most
women employees use the weekend for pending household chores. The JCM, chaired
by the Cabinet Secretary, is a joint group of various staff unions of central
government employees supposed to act as a platform for constructive dialogue
between the representatives of the staff side and the official side for
peaceful resolution of all disputes.
Source:
www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com
