Tamil Nadu Govt–Employee Union Talks Inconclusive, Strike from Jan 6
Indefinite protest set from January 6 after failed talks.
Prolonged negotiations between senior Tamil Nadu government ministers and leaders of JACTTO-GEO—a prominent federation representing thousands of state government employees and teachers—along with allied unions ended inconclusively on Monday, solidifying the unions' resolve to launch an indefinite statewide strike beginning January 6, 2026, potentially disrupting essential public services.
The closed-door meeting, held at the state secretariat and lasting approximately three hours, featured ministers EV Velu, Thangam Thennarasu, and Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi on the government side, though they declined to brief reporters afterward, leaving union representatives to publicly express profound frustration over what they described as a lack of substantive engagement and meaningful commitments.
At the heart of the impasse lies the unions' longstanding 10-point charter of demands, most prominently the immediate restoration of the Old Pension Scheme, which the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) had explicitly promised as a key electoral pledge during the 2021 Assembly elections, alongside resolutions for other pending issues affecting employee welfare and service conditions.
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JACTTO-GEO state coordinators K Baskaran, S Prabhakaran, and Theodore Robinson, addressing media post-meeting, announced comprehensive preparatory rallies across all district headquarters commencing December 27, while sharply criticising the government's approach as indicative of undue influence by IAS officers that they claim is obstructing political will to fulfil commitments.
The coordinators further highlighted the government's failure to obtain the final recommendations from a specially constituted committee tasked with evaluating pension options despite its mandated deadline of September 30 having long passed, reinforcing their assertion that the administration's reluctance has compelled the workforce to resort to industrial action until tangible progress is achieved on their demands.
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