Interacting with members of Civil Secretariat Non-Gazetted Employees Union which called on him this afternoon, Rather asked them to shun the path of confrontation and assured them that their genuine demands would be looked into.
He said the present government had taken several steps for its employees and implemented Sixth pay commission recommendations along with arrears, despite meagre resources.
"Regularisation of the services of contractual, ad hoc and those working on consolidated basis is another landmark decision of the present government which was pending for about last 20 years," Rather said.
He said the government had to enact a law, which has no parallel in the country, to regularise their services. Not only this, the eligibility age of the employees to get full pensionary benefits was also lowered from mandatory 30 years to 28 years, Rather said.
Likewise the HRA was also approved to be paid to the employees at the same rates applicable to the central government employees.
Rather said pay disparity of the employees of Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) was also done away with and the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) was converted into Dearness Allowance (DA) which was a long pending demand of PSUs.
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He said the government was open to discussing the problems and demands of the employees and all their major demands had been already fulfilled.
Any other genuine demands could be considered through dialogue, Rather said, adding that, employees have every right to seek redressal of their genuine grievances as long as they carry out their duties.
The president of the Civil Secretariat Non-Gazetted Employees Union, Rauf Ahmad presented a memorandum of demands to the minister which included implementation of Comprehensive Accommodation Policy for Secretariat employees, revision in J&K Medical Attendance-cum-Allowance Rules 1990 and rationalisation of electricity supply to government residential quarters of civil secretariat employees.
The minister assured them that these demands would be examined by the government.