Central Secretariat Service officials warn Union Govt of complete strike from May 20 over delayed promotions

The officials of the Central Secretariat Service (CSS) are going to go on a strike due to non-fulfilment of long pending issues and they have given the notice of non-cooperation to the secretary of the Department of Personnel and Training at North Block in Central Delhi.

These officials have been demanding an expedited decision on the promotion of officials which has been delayed by six years. The notice states that other than DoPT, under whom CSS falls, all ministries are constantly issuing promotion orders for all employees. In the meetings held in the matter with DoP&T CS-I Division Officials, all of them were rigid and were insistent that they would work the slow, customary and procedural way, which would take years for making promotions in CSS up to date.

The Officers have stated that they would follow the slow and lacklustre attitude of their Cadre Controlling Authority (CCA). The officers have also stated that they will not sit beyond 5.30 pm to finish work and if the issues are left unresolved till May 15, 2022, then the non-cooperation movement will culminate into an “indefinite pen-down strike in entire Central Secretariat from May 20, 2022”.

The notice pointed out that the CSS Officers will wear black dress on one day of the week as a sign of their hopelessness and they will report all the real staff requirement to their concerned admin and forward all the details to DoPT.

“Until now, DoPT said that they were not promoting due to a case pending in the Supreme Court on reservation in promotions in CC. The SC order came in January 2022 and the guidelines on April 12, 2022, but even after that the department hasn’t done anything,” said Manmohan Verma, the general secretary of the Central Secretariat Forum. It is a group for CSS Group B officers and CSS Organised Group A officers. The Association’s letter pointed out that another department (CS-II Division, CCA of Central Secretariat Stenographers Service (CSSS) officers) has begun to issue promotion letters within 15 days of the guidelines being released.

The CSS is an administrative service which works in the central government secretariat. The Department of Personnel and Training is the coordinating agency of the Central Government in personnel matters.

Verma pointed out that several of their senior officers have retired without getting their deserved promotions, which meant financial loss. Additionally, in-service officers due for promotions especially SO 2012 and ASO 2012 batches have already borne cumulative lifelong financial loss of increments amounting to lakhs of rupees each and are staring at loss of another increment due on July 1, 2022, said the notice to the DoPT.

The Association alleged that the CS-I Division has not even taken any action on other righteous demands of CSS officers which was assured by the Minister of State Jitendra Singh in a meeting on February 8, 2022.

According to the PIB press release, Dr Jitendra Singh had given a patient hearing to the members of the CSS delegation and assured them that the DoPT will take all measures to sort out all the pending issues including the cases pending in the courts.

On February 25, 2022, the CSS officers had assembled at North Block outside the Department of Personnel and Training under the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension. The employees had then alleged that nearly 30% positions in the CSS were vacant in the middle to senior management ranks in various Central ministries as the Union government had not promoted officials of the CSS for the past six years.