Right to strike should remain: Sahib Singh Verma

LONDON: Contrary to the Supreme Court verdict banning strikes by government employees, Union Labour Minister Sahib Singh Verma says "as a last resort the employees'' right to strike should remain."
"I feel that for any worker, if his prayer is not listened to by authorities or if he has exhausted all channels of grievance redressal, then in such circumstances, has a right within the rules to protest. The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, has a provision for it," he said in BBC''s ''Aapki Baat BBC Ke Saath'' programme broadcast on Sunday night.
Asked whether the government is filing a review petition on the verdict of the Division Bench of the apex court, Verma said: "We have held a few meetings on the issue, but we have not reached a final decision on the matter yet."
"The Supreme Court decision is restricted to government employees and does not include the workers in general.... For government employees, there is a strong mechanism for their grievance redressal also. Even after that, if they do not get justice, what do they do? I feel that as a last resort the right to strike should remain," Verma said.
Asked why his ministry had not done anything to deal with the strike of Tamil Nadu government employees which resulted in the loss of jobs of 4,000 workers, Verma said: "Unfortunately in the Tamil Nadu strike case, the employees did not approach the central government.
"Even now if they make a representation, we can think of taking up the matter with the chief minister as labour is in the concurrent list," he said.