The PSEB Engineers Association has written a letter to PSPCL/PSTCL management on Tuesday stating that engineers will be left with no other option but to follow the path of agitation, in case no corrective action was taken to resolve the issue of lesser pay scale to newly recruited engineers.

 Ajay Pal Singh Atwal, General Secretary of the Association, said that a great injustice and deliberate delay is being done to the newly recruited engineers, who are being denied proper pay scale as per the existing pattern and this action of management is not acceptable at all. Such actions constitute a blatant assault on the dignity of the engineering cadre and a calculated effort to sow discord and industrial unrest within the power sector.

Atwal said that the assistant engineers recruited by erstwhile PSEB were allowed higher scales than their counterparts in the Punjab government. and the differential has always been maintained, in view of the very odious nature of the duty of power engineers.  

"Unfortunately, PSPCL & PSTCL have been directed to pay less pay of 47600. It is for the record that PSPCL & PSTCL have been directed to pay less pay to new assistant engineers in the f scale of Junior Engineers. As per the 6th Punjab Pay Commission, AE (OT) was getting a scale corresponding to the pay band level 10 and also an additional edge over the Punjab Government cadres as per the prevailing practice.. But now pay of AE(OT) has been reduced to Pay Band level 8 of the 7th Central Pay Commission and this is  much below the existing scales.

Moreover no decision has been taken regarding TBPS, pay anomalies, pending arrears of pay scales, pending DA, and the old pension scheme," he added. 

The Association has asked the management to y  take up these serious issues with the Punjab Government in a time-bound schedule.