| Oil PSU employees to go on strike | |
| CABINET DECIDES | | BS Reporter / New Delhi November 21, 2008, 0:45 IST | |
Unhappy over the Cabinet decision to give an effective salary hike of 20-25 per cent to officials in government-owned companies, the 55,000 employees of government-owned oil companies have decided to go on strike from December 2.
 The Oil Sector Officers’ Association (OSOA), which includes officials from all state-owned oil companies, had earlier called for an indefinite strike from November 18 but had postponed it by two weeks after Petroleum Minister Murli Deora and Heavy Industries Minister Santosh Mohan Dev had told them their concerns over the pay revision would be addressed by the Union Cabinet on November 20. “It is totally demoralising. We will now go ahead with the strike from December 2,” said Amit Kumar, president of the OSOA.
The oil sector officials had demanded special pay for employees of the industry since they claim they work in hazardous environments and earn huge revenues for the government.
Oil companies contribute more than half of the excise duty collected by the government and around a quarter of the Customs duty.
“Do not forget, we also contribute to the government’s subsidy bill,” said an official of the OSOA.
The oil sector association had been demanding freedom to revise salaries. “We atleast wanted that if the scales were not open-ended, the periodicity of revision be five years,” the official said. Currently, wages are revised every 10 years.
The OSOA had in a statement earlier this week said a strike would result in revenue loss of Rs 225 crore per day from oil and gas production and Rs 900 crore from sale of fuels. It would also result in Rs 100 crore per day loss in excise revenue for the government, according to the statement.
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