‘No work, no pay’ for absent J&K staff

As the unrest in the Valley continues unabated and a majority of government employees have stayed away from work during the past two months for varied reasons, the state authorities on Thursday formally announced a “no work, no pay” diktat.

The state’s chief secretary, B.R. Sharma, said that, from the month of September 2016, salaries of the employees who remain on unauthorised absence from duty will not be released and action under relevant rules initiated against them.

Mr Sharma, who was reviewing the attendance of employees in government offices, expressed concern over the irregular attendance of a section of employees. He directed the administrative secretaries and heads of departments “to ensure attendance of all the employees working in their respective departments and subordinate offices without fail”.

The chief secretary said that, however, in view of the ensuing festival of Id-ul Zuha, chief minister Mehbooba Mufti has, “while taking a compassionate view in the matter”, directed the release of salary of all the government employees for the month of August 2016.

He also expressed displeasure over non-installation and implementation of Aadhaar-Enabled Bio-metric Attendance System (AEBAS) in many offices across the state.

He asked for the installation of the AEBAS forthwith and its implementation in all the government offices.

Various employees’ trade unions have defended the employees’ failure in reporting to duty. They said that curfew and other restrictions remained in force in the Valley for 52 days in the face of widespread disturbances following the killing of Hizb-ul-Mujahedin commander Burhan Wani on July 8. Also, the shutdowns called by the separatists and frequent street clashes have made it somewhat impossible for the employees to commute between their homes and places of work, they said.

“We don’t understand why and how the authorities who live in secured official accommodations, have been provided personal security guards, use official transport and are escorted wherever they go can ignore the circumstances in which an ordinary employee is caught,” asked a spokesman of the Employees’ Joint Action Committee (EJAC). Some of the trade union leaders also say that there is no public transport available due to the turmoil and yet many employees have after risking their own lives walked long distances to report to their duties. They pointed out that in several such cases, the employees were harassed and even thrashed by security forces who also refused to accept their identity cards as curfew passes in negation of official announcements made before.

The EJAC spokesman alleged that the authorities’ attitude towards the average government employee has been “unrealistic rather hostile”. He said its seven office-bearers including president Abdul Qayoom Wani were recently arrested and jailed merely because they held a peaceful protest against the civilian killings in the Valley. “They were released after they obtained bail from court but quickly rearrested which speaks volumes about the government’s behaviour,” the spokesman said.