PSPCL Employees Call Off Week-Long Strike After Meeting With Cheema

July

2026

The week-long strike by employees of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL), which had severely affected power restoration across Panjab was called off on 27 Jul, a day after the Panjab government assured a time-bound resolution of the employees' long-pending financial demands. The decision to withdraw the agitation was announced by the Joint Coordination Committee of PSPCL employees following a marathon meeting with Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema. Cheema assured them that a committee constituted to examine their financial demands would submit an interim report by 31 Jul and a final report by 15 Aug. The committee will recommend the manner in which the employees' financial demands can be implemented by the PSPCL management. Union leaders said the government also accepted another key demand concerning electricity concessions for employees recruited after 2011, resolving an issue that had remained a major point of contention for several years. The unions also sought the regularization of outsourced workers, contending that thousands of contractual employees had been performing the same technical duties as regular staff for years while receiving substantially lower wages, without service benefits. The working of PSPCL and Punjab State Transmission Corporation Limited was adversely affected in the past week, since 85% of power utility employees, under the banners of various trade unions, had remained on strike despite PSPCL’s 'No Work, No Pay' rule. Almost the entire technical workforce, including linemen and assistant linemen, has remained off-duty, forcing PSPCL to manage operations with a skeletal workforce. In Rupnagar district, each subdivision was being managed by only four to five senior technical officers, including Executive Engineers, Sub-Divisional Engineers, and Junior Engineers. In Jalandhar too, regular employees had joined the statewide mass leave protest on 20 Jul, after talks with Power Minister Tarunpreet Singh Sond failed to resolve their demands. One of the key demands raised by the employees included the release of pending Dearness Allowance, which the PSPCL failed to release despite running into profits worth over USD 230M in 2025–26. VK Gupta, spokesperson of the All India Power Engineers Federation said, ‘By running its own captive coal mine and making optimal use of its power plants, the PSPCL has increased profitability. Despite profits, the arrears of staff are still pending’ (earlier coverage).