Last weekend all the hapless Oil Sector Employees had to report to work. POUR SOULS!!! Office on saturday and sunday in PSU and that too after shouting slogans week-long... And to top it the govt. along with the horrible, good-for-nothing media was blaming them all week for paralysing the whole country....Nobody was ready to listen to them, and to make things worse they actually terminated some officers....for what??? for not attending office??? is that such a serious offence??? I am sorry if i am offending anyone (specially some of my friends who are in these PSUs) but i personally dont believe there was anything wrong in what govt. did.
Firstly, let us see what exactly were the grievances of the oil sector workers that led them to go on strike. I have heard some different versions regarding this but the main reason it seems was some part of Justice Rao Committee's suggestion regarding pay scale revision. I dont know whether they are earning enough of not, but the thing is if you are not satisfied by the package provided by the current employer, you are free to join any other company who you think can provide you better opportunities.
I may be wrong but i think OIL PSUs are one of the best providers of facilities to their employees, on par with many MNCs (which the employees deserve given the fact that they are generating so much revenue). But they should also know that they are working in a critical sector which affects the whole economy of the country. In the absence of supply of petrol, diesel there was shortage of these fuels everywhere (whether natural or artificial is debatable). Buses had to be taken off the road, petrol pumps were shut down, some industries also faced shortage and had to scale down their production. The situation didnt' become much grim because of another strike, transporters. But the fact is the twin strike of transporters and OIL PSUs meant that the whole economy was brought to a standstill. Each day that the OIL PSUs didnt function resulted in losses to the tune of crores of rupees. Who is responsible for this loss?
OSOA (OIL Sector Officers Association) also says that the govt. is indulging in blame game and is trying to malign them with the help of media, who wont listen to them. Again I may be wrong, but the way i see the media it is not in much control of the govt. and it wont leave even one chance of some sensational news item. In these times when there are so many news channels, couldn't they find even one news channel who were ready to show the truth?
Another major complaint of OSOA is the termination of some of the employees. I believe that if the employees have the right to strike, in order to press their demands then even the employer has the right to terminate their services. The employees are not doing a favor to govt. by working for them and the govt. is also not doing a favor by giving them salary and perks. It is a professional setup where each should respect the other and understand the other's situation. If the strike was just then so was the termination. What is wrong in kicking an employee who doesn't want to work. And, since the employee was not happy with the current package being offered and was not ready to work unless his demands were met and govt. was adamant it wont be increasing the package, the only option was either the employee leave the company or the company sack the employee. In either case the other party should not feel agrieved because they are also responsible for the consequences. I can agree to the fact that those who were terminated were a small fraction of the total public which went on strike and they may feel bad, but they bought it upon themselves. If they would have reported to work, there was no chance of them being terminated. And if they were prevented from going to work against their wishes, then that should be probed and the persons responsible for that should be punished.
Lastly, i dont know wheter the strike was just or not, whether the govt. was right or wrong but i know that the common man has to suffer whenever such strikes take place.
I, strongly believe that employees have the right to stall work if they feel they are being negelected or are not getting what they deserve. But once they are refraining from work, they should also be ready to be sacked because the employer also has a business to run.
