Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) has issued orders for withholding the salary and pension of 28 leaders of the power employees’ joint action committee for the month of March.

The order has been issued following an interim order of the Allahabad High Court.

The UPPCL has also issued orders directing the managing directors of all five subsidiary power distribution companies to mark all the employees who were absent from duty without leave during the three-day strike period from March 17 to March 19.

The UPPCL order issued on March 25 said the absence of all the employees who did not report on duty without sanctioned leave be treated as “unauthorised absence in ERP column”.

ERP (enterprise resource planning) is a software system that is used for managing business supporting automation and processes in finance, human resources, manufacturing, supply chain, services, procurement etc.

Joint action committee convener Shailendra Dubey said that the salary and pension of only one month had been withheld by the High Court. He said the next hearing in the case was listed on April 24.

The High Court had taken a dim view of the 72-hour token strike by the power employees and had held the power employees’ leaders in contempt of court and directed withholding of their salary and pension.

The UPPCL management, adopting a tough stance, has also not initiated the process for withdrawing the cases lodged against the power employees and their leaders. The employees were booked under the provisions of Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA)

On March 19, after several rounds of talks with the government officials and Energy Minister AK Sharma, power employees’ leader Shailendra Dubey had announced to withdraw the strike several hours before the deadline of 72-hour. Energy Minister AK Sharma had publicly promised to withdraw the orders for the termination of services of contractual employees and also the criminal cases and ESMA against the employees and their leaders.

The minister had said that he had instructed UPPCL Chairman M Devraj to withdraw FIRs and suspension and termination orders issued against the employees and their leaders.

The power employees on March 25 staged protest demonstrations across the state as the government failed to ensure the withdrawal of FIRs lodged against power employees and engineers during the recent 72-hour strike.

Dubey said that “instead of undoing the action, the management continues to take fresh penal action against us with a sense of vengeance”.