A nationwide strike by government employees hits a country's economy hard, apart from causing inconvenience to people who are not part of the protest, and these include those in the private sector and the unorganised sector.
Last year, a similar strike paralysed normal life in many parts of India besides causing a loss running into thousands of crores, as estimated by industry body Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham).
"Financial impact of the disruption of essential services might lead to an estimated loss of over Rs 25,000 crore to the economy thereby taking into account the numerous direct and indirect losses," D.S. Rawat, secretary general of the Assocham, said in a press statement on Sept. 2, 2015.
"The strike is likely to hit industrial activity due to poor workers' attendance, besides footfall in retail trading markets will fall as the walkout will severely impact public transport and with bank employees remaining on strike it will affect operations at the banks," he added.
Using an inflation rate of about 5 percent, the loss could be around Rs. 26,250 crore.
Meanwhile, one of the trade unions spearheading the strike has criticised the Narendra Modi government for attempting to spread "false information" on wage hike.
"The Labour Minister claimed to have announced a 42% rise in minimum wage for the workers in central sphere. What does that mean for the workers and the unions who have demanded fixation of statutory minimum wage for all workers in the country at not less than Rs 18000/- per month?" Tapan Das, general secretary of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), asked in a statement on Thursday.
"This means that minimum wage for workers in the "C" category areas should be at least Rs. 18000, making it proportionally higher in "S" and "A" category areas, i.e., Rs. 22,320 and Rs. 26,560, respectively. The government's offer of Rs. 9,100, Rs. 11,362 and Rs. 13,598, respectively, for the workers of central sphere in "C", "S" and "A" category areas respectively is not even half of what all the central trade unions including BMS unitedly demanded and have been pursuing since last five years; they vociferously argued for the same on the latest occasion in the meeting of the Minimum Wage Advisory Soard held on 29th August 2016," he added.
Das was referring to a purported statement issued by Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya on Wednesday.
Claiming that the minister's statement was attempt to obfuscate facts with the aim of "sabotaging" the strike, Das said: "CITU asserts that this kind of gimmickry will struggle. THE STRIKE IS ON."
