The Kerala High Court on Monday barred government employees from participating in the 48-hour nationwide shutdown called by trade unions. According to the high court, government employees do not come under the ambit of workers and their participation in the strike is against service rules.
The court has directed the government to issue an order on this immediately in the same regard.
A division bench of Chief Justice S Mani Kumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly, which was hearing a petition of activist Chandrachoodan Nair, observed thea employees’ participation in the strike is illegal. It added they will be ineligible for pay for the days they abstain from work. The court directed the government to declare no work, no pay. Employees absent in such cases were earlier considered to be on leave and given full pay.
Moving the court, Nair asked it to declare the participation of government employees in the strike unconstitutional.
He also accused the government of encouraging employees to stay away from work. He added it would later tweak norms to ensure full salaries.
The court said the government cannot pay employees for remaining absent during the strike.
The state law department has sought advice from the director-general of prosecutions and is likely to move the Supreme Court against the high court order.
Reacting to the high court's observation, All India Trade Union Congress leader K P Rajendran called it unfortunate.
Almost all government offices and businesses remained shut in Kerala. Only 32 out of 4,824 employees reported to work at the state secretariat, people aware of the matter said. They included the chief secretary. But rail traffic remained unaffected. The state’s main IT parks also functioned normally. The two-day strike commenced on Sunday at midnight. It will continue till Tuesday midnight.
