New Delhi: The central trade unions have refused to call off their countrywide strike on September 2 against labor reforms after a fresh meeting on Thursday with the group of ministers headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley remained inconclusive. All India Trade Union Congress secretary D. L. Sachdev said after the meeting that there was no consensus and "the call for the strike still stands". "Today's meeting was inconclusive…We will meet tomorrow (Friday) to decide our future course of action," Sachdev said.

The central trade unions had given a call of strike on September 2 to press for their demands, including increasing minimum wage to Rs.15,000, trade unions' representation in the process of labour reforms and equivalent wage to contract workers with their regular counterparts. "We don't think government has offered us anything on which we can consider to call off our strike," Sachdev said.
Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who is also member of the GoM, however, however, said the talks were "positive" and appealed the unions to call off their strike in the interest of the country. The GoM had a meeting with the representatives of 11 central trade unions on Wednesday to discuss their 12-charter of demands. However, the meeting failed to make any headway. Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh president Baij Nath Rai said the workers would go on the strike until the government agrees on their demands.

(IANS)