The employees of the Electricity Department on Wednesday abstained from work and staged a protest against the Centre’s move to privatise power distribution in the Union Territory.

The protest was held in front of the Electricity Department premises, ahead of the scheduled meeting, convened by the Centre with the employees on Thursday and Friday.

The workers have expressed their strong reservations about the privatisation move. “We have decided not to work and stage a protest because the Centre is going against our wishes to privatise power distribution in the Union Territory,” said a protesting engineer. Majority of the sub-offices also remained closed on Wednesday, he added.