Oil PSU officers defy government; to go ahead with strike

Shalini Amarnani
06 January 2009

The disagreement between the centre and public sector oil company officers seems to have reached a stand off.

The Oil Sector Officers Association (OSOA), which represent officers from four public sector oil companies,  is the main convenor of this strike.

Amit Kumar, president OASA, told domain-b from New Delhi, ahead of a press conference ''I am very disappointed at the stand that the government has taken. Instead of resolving issues and meeting their promises, they have threatened us with punitive action. Invoking the NSA or ESMA is not a solution to the problems."

''OSOA was open to resolving the issue till 6 am on Wednesday morning. But if the government continues with this stand off we will go on strike as promised,'' Kumar said.

The government has taken a tough stand against the public sector oil officers striking for higher wages stating that such a strike was illegal.

Public sector oil firm executives had announced last month and also earlier last week that they would go on an indefinite strike from 7 January, over the "unkept promises" by the government on their wage demands. OSOA has been in talks for nearly two and half years regarding the wage settlement issues.