Secretariat employees end week-long strike in Uttarkhand

Around 1,200 secretariat employees in Uttarakhand today ended their week-long strike after the high court's intervention and Chief Minister Harish Rawat's assurance to reconsider cabinet decisions which had caused the stir.
The employees were on an indefinite strike since November 12 in protest against the state cabinet's decisions of increasing the number of working days in a week from five to six and making biometric registration of attendance mandatory.
The strike has been called off following the high court's order and assurances from the chief minister and various other ministers to reconsider the decisions, Uttarakhand Secretariat Employees Association General Secretary Pradip Papnai said.

On November 14, the Uttarakhand High Court had directed the state government to ensure an early end to the strike by secretariat employees in public interest.
Chief Minister Harish Rawat expressed happiness over the strike being called off.
Describing secretariat employees as part of the government, he said resolving their problems was the state government's topmost priority.

"The government is always ready to listen to its officials and employees. There is no better option than dialogue. Government is always ready to fulfill the appropriate demands of its employees," Rawat said in a statement.
"Leaders of employees have shown their leadership quality by rolling back the strike as they respected the verdict of honourable High Court as well as people of the state who had been inconvenienced by the strike, " he added.

However, Papnai made it clear that if the state government does not keep its promise of reconsidering the decisions at its next cabinet meeting, the agitation will be relaunched with a changed strategy.