Team Herald
PANJIM: Hundreds of passengers were stranded with fotilla staff suspending ferry services for two hours from 9 am to 11 am on Monday, to protest the government’s failure to pay them overtime wages as per the Sixth Pay Commission. Normal functioning of ferry services was restored after 11 am on all riverine ferry routes.
This has attracted strict action against them as the River Navigation Department has moved the government seeking permission to register a police complaint against them.
“We have moved the government to arrest the employees who participated in the strike. We have identified five fotilla staff. Once we get an approval, a police complaint will be filed against them,” an RND official told Herald.
The government had invoked ESMA and declared the strike called by Government of India Navigation Employees Union (Goa) as illegal. The order had directed the staff to report to their duties to ensure smooth and uninterrupted plying of the ferries.
In a statement issued later in the evening, the Union has threatened to intensify the agitation if their pending demand is not met immediately. They also expressed regret at the inconvenience caused to the passengers.
“Such protest actions and the ensuing inconvenience to the people is caused primarily by an apathetic, insensitive and anti-people government that is singularly responsible for not paying the earned overtime wages and just dues,” the statement says.
