The Tamil Nadu government has brought back the six-day working week system, effective from May 18 and has increased the working strength in all its offices from 33% currently to 50% from Monday next, with employees working in three batches of two days each.
This will be implemented in all government offices from the Secretariat to district/field level offices including Commissions, Boards, Corporations, Universities, Companies, Institutions and Societies of the State government. A government order to this effect was issued on Friday afternoon. As per the orders, the offices will function six days a week including Saturdays, with the present office timings. The G.O. said necessary transport arrangements will be made.
All government offices shall function with half the workforce, i.e. 50%, with the first batch working for two days a week at the start of the week — Monday and Tuesday, the second batch working on Wednesday and Thursday, followed by the first batch again on Friday and Saturday.
In the subsequent week, this schedule will be reversed with the second batch working on Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday, while the first batch will work on Wednesday and Thursday. The government said apart from this alternate working system, staff who are off-duty shall also attend office if called, at any point of time.
All Group-A officers — staff in posts drawing level of pay from Rs. 59,300- 1,87,700 to Rs. 1,28,900- 2,25,000 (levels 25 to 32 in the pay matrix) and all Head of offices, irrespective of level in the pay matrix shall attend office on all working days, the government said.
“A system of level-jumping in the submission of files in the reporting hierarchy shall be put in place by the head of the department, if necessary. All officers and staff members shall always be available for official work and accessible through any electronic mode of communication,” according to the G.O.
Departments such as police, health, district administration, treasury, local bodies and others will continue to function as per orders issued on March 25, the government said.
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