Paris NGO studies Ammas moody staff
Ahead of Diwali bonus, it seeks to know opinion of employees on strikes
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
Posted online: Thursday, October 07, 2004 at 0207 hours IST
CHENNAI, OCTOBER 6: Just as Tamil Nadu Government Employees Unions are gearing up for another round of confrontation with the Jayalalithaa regime for the Diwali bonus, an international agency has launched the first-ever survey to assess the moods and levels of aggression among the state government staff.
The Paris-based Public Services International, to which over 600 unions across the world are affiliated, has chosen Tamil Nadu due to just one factor: The month-long strike by government employees that the state witnessed last year and the governments unprecedented move later, to sack over a lakh employees overnight.
Will you resort to a strike to get concessions from the government especially after the Supreme Court banned strikes, is one of the questions put to 3,000 employees spread across four districts.
The questions mostly revolve around the employees views on unions and strike: Are unions necessary to get concessions from the Government?
Should unions have political affiliations? Do unions take decisions in line with their political interests?
It was a comprehensive questionnaire maintaining strict anonymity of the respondents with just the details of their age, gender and the number of years they had put in government service obtained, according to K. Srinivasan, chairman of the Chennai-based Prime Point Public Relations (P) Ltd, which had been engaged by the PSI to do the Image Audit study.
The first phase of the survey covered four districts Cuddalore, Vellore, Tiruchi and Chennai.
Qualitative data has been collected on all contentious issues related to workers moods from a representative sample of 3,000 respondents, Srinivasan told reporters here today.
The questionnaires were handed over by the field staff to almost the entire range of government employees starting from the village administrative officers in the four districts.
IAS and police officers were kept out of the purview of the survey. Since most government employees usually do not get a chance to voice their true opinion on issues, even in close-door meetings, the idea of the image audit was to understand their mindset, Srinivasan said.
The findings should help bridge the gap between the employees and the government, and help both the trade unions and the powers-that-be to accurately shape their respective strategies in future in dealing with issues, he added.
The survey would also help the Tamil Nadu government feel the pulse of employees and workers in Tamil Nadu and find out if they are getting increasingly belligerent.
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