The Government Employees in Maharashtra have started an Indefinite Strike. Employee unions claimed that around 17 lakh workers joined the strike, including staff from state departments, zilla parishads, schools, and sections of the public health system.
About 1.7 million State government, semi-government, teaching, non-teaching and Class IV employees in Maharashtra began an indefinite strike on Friday (April 17, 2026), demanding a revised pension scheme.
The government has said it will treat the strike as misconduct and enforce a ‘No Work, No Pay’ policy.
Two employee organisations, the State Government Employees’ Central Association and the State Government Group-D (Class IV) Employees’ Central Federation, had issued a strike notice earlier.
The unions said that although a revised pension scheme was implemented on March 1, 2024, a corresponding official notification has not been issued. As a result, retired employees are not receiving any retirement benefits.
For employees covered under the Maharashtra Essential Services Maintenance Act, action will be taken as per the Act’s provisions.The circular also directed department heads to remain at their headquarters during the strike. Leave requests are not to be sanctioned. Police assistance should be sought to ensure government offices open and close at their scheduled times.
The unions have put forward 17 demands. These include starting recruitment for Class IV employees and drivers, launching a health insurance scheme, raising the retirement age to 60, regularising contractual employees, resolving pay scale issues of clerical staff, and addressing problems in the Health Department.
Bhausaheb Pathan of the State Government Group-D (Class IV) Employees’ Central Federation said the unions had held seven protests over the past two years to press for these demands.
In a statement, the unions said they had submitted the 17 demands to the government. They said they were assured that decisions would be taken after discussions at the Chief Secretary level. However, the unions added, their demands were ignored during the 15-month tenure of the current Mahayuti government. They said the government had kept the doors to dialogue closed and refused to grant them an opportunity for discussion.
Government Employees have been demanding implementation of old Pension scheme for quite a long time. But the Government seems not to implement the scheme.
