Following protests, Kerala stays decision to raise retirement age in PSUs

Thiruvananthapuram: A day after various youth organisations criticised the Kerala government for raising the retirement age of state PSU employees to 60, the weekly cabinet meeting held here on Wednesday under Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan decided to freeze the October 29 order. According to sources, Vijayan himself expressed his concern that the decision to raise […]

Thiruvananthapuram: A day after various youth organisations criticised the Kerala government for raising the retirement age of state PSU employees to 60, the weekly cabinet meeting held here on Wednesday under Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan decided to freeze the October 29 order.

According to sources, Vijayan himself expressed his concern that the decision to raise the retirement age has not gone down well with the youths, and hence it need not be pursued.

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On Tuesday, the Youth Congress activists took to the streets here protesting against the decision and also came down heavily on the youth wing of the CPI(M) — the DYFI, after national president A.A. Rahim said the Kerala unit will decide on what needs to be done.

While the AIYF, the youth wing of the second biggest ally of the ruling Left, CPI announced their protests plans, it was later that the Kerala unit of the DYFI said the decision to raise the retirement age will affect the job prospects of the youth.

Welcoming the decision, the Youth Congress leader and former two-time legislator K.S. Sabarinathan said that they welcome the decision and now the need of the hour was that the youth get an assurance from Vijayan that they will not try to rake this issue again, as youths are desperate for jobs.

“A meeting with all the youth organisations must be called by the government to discuss the burning issue of unemployment here,” said Sabarinathan.

There are over 100 state PSU’s engaging around 1.50 lakh workers.

Notably, the retirement age of various PSUs in the state varies from 56 to 58 and the fresh order was issued based on the recommendations of an expert committee, which conducted a comprehensive study on the formulation of a common framework for pay/wage structure of PSUs in the state except Kerala State Electricity Board, Kerala State Road Transport Corporation and Kerala Water Authority.

The expert committee had recommended that the retirement age of employees of all state PSUs shall be enhanced uniformly to 60 as in the case of central PSUs.

Incidentally, there are around 4.5 million educated unemployed youths in Kerala and all along, the CPI(M) has been strongly opposing raising the retirement age, even when Kerala is the only state where the state government employees retire at age 56.