Karnataka employees won’t get an extra day off

Chief minister DV Sadananda Gowda on Thursday said the state government employees’ wish of reducing the number of working days in a week to five would not be granted.

He was speaking to presspersons after he met the leaders of state government employees’ association. Gowda said he ruled out the reduction in number of work days because the Sixth Pay Commission had not recommended five-day work week for state government offices; offices coming under Central government work from Monday to Friday.

In his state budget for 2012-13, Gowda announced pay hike for state government employees. Gowda said state employees’ leaders complained that there were loopholes in the Pay Commission’s reports. He said he assured them that he would study the report and plug the loopholes, if any.

By increasing the salary of state employees in the budget, the chief minister fulfilled their long-standing demand of bridging the gap in their pay structure and that of Central government employees.

The chief minister rejected the view that the state government employees hardly worked and did not deserve the pay hike. He said pay hike was the right of all employees. He added that it was the government’s responsibility to extract work from its employees and take strict action against those fail to discharge their duties.
Further, Gowda denied reports that the state government did not have enough money to take up drought relief work in the state. He said the government had already released `360 crore for drought relief work.