KSEB reneging on tripartite agreement?
CL Jose
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The very idea of establishing a state administrative service called Kerala Administrative Service (KAS) on the lines of the prestigious Indian Administrative Service (IAS) about six years ago had stirred up a hornets’ nest among the aspiring government employees.
The tens of thousands of state government employees who ardently dream of promotions during their decades-long career view the constitution of KAS as an underminer of their career ambitions.
Being recruited at a relatively high cadre in the case of KAS, the regular government employees genuinely foresee these officers could easily ‘grab’ their dream positions before they could reach there, taking the sheen off several governmental positions that had earlier enjoyed immense promotion scope.
Now KSEB
It’s the turn of the KSEB employees now, as the management has moved to recruit officers from Kerala Administrative Service (KAS) into several middle management cadres of KSEB Ltd.
In this regard, the three major officers’ unions at Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB Ltd) are up in arms against the management move to squeeze in KAS officers in the company.
businessbenchmark.news could confirm that the leading officers’ outfits supported by CPM, Congress and CPI – KSEB Officers’ Association, KSEB Workers’ Federation and Kerala Electricity Officers’ Confederation (KEOC) respectively, have already registered their protests against the move in no uncertain terms.
Talking to businessbenchmark.news, PS Parashanth, the general secretary of KEOC, stated that the new move to recruit KAS officers in KSEB’s middle management positions will tantamount to violation of the tripartite agreement signed among the employees’ union/associations, KSEBL and the government of Kerala at the time of converting KSEB into the company called KSEB Ltd.
“The agreement clearly says that the service conditions and the guidelines for employees’ promotion would continue as existed prior to KSEB’s conversion into company – KSEB Ltd,” explained Prasanth.
He said the unions and associations will not yield to the new management pressure tactics. If needed, the unions/associations will sit together and weave new strategies to resist it.
The management move if implemented is likely to affect posts such as accounts officers, assistant accounts officers, administrative officers, assistant administrative officers, etc.
What is more intriguing is these prospective KAS officers are supposed to report directly to the chairman and managing director (CMC) of KSEBL, bypassing the respective chief engineers (CEs).
“This is bound to disturb the hierarchal equations within the organization,” Prasanth noted.
Even if the management elects to create new posts instead of filling the existing positions, it will be called out as a totally uncalled for move as KSEB is not in a position to take on such financial challenges as is amply evident to the management as well as the government.
What’s KAS?
The Kerala Administrative Service (KAS) is a state-level civil service in Kerala, aimed at recruiting and training administrative professionals to work in various administrative roles within the state government
KAS was introduced in 2018 by the Kerala Government. The Kerala Public Service Commission (KPSC) conducts a three-stage exam to recruit candidates for the service, followed by 18 months of training.
The first KAS exam was conducted in 2020, with more than 550,000 candidates appearing from all streams. The first batch of KAS officers completed training at the Institute of Management in Government (IMG) in Thiruvananthapuram on December 24, 2021.
