The week-long strike by employees of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL), which had severely affected power restoration across Punjab, was called off in the early hours of Monday after the Punjab 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.Employee representatives said the Finance Minister assured them that a committee constituted to examine their financial demands would submit an interim report by July 31 and a final report by August 15. The committee has been tasked with recommending 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. According to the employees, the PSPCL Board management agreed to extend the power concession facility to these employees, resolving an issue that had remained a major point of contention for several years.The strike, which entered its sixth day before being withdrawn, saw participation of almost the entire technical workforce, including linemen and assistant linemen responsible for maintaining distribution lines and attending to power breakdowns. Their absence significantly slowed fault rectification, particularly in rural and semi-urban areas, where consumers experienced prolonged outages following technical faults.The principal demand of the unions was the implementation of the principle of ‘equal work, equal pay’. Employee leaders alleged that workers performing identical duties within the corporation were receiving different salaries because of differences in their mode of recruitment and employment category. They argued that the disparity had created resentment among employees and demanded uniform pay for employees performing identical work.The unions also sought the regularisation 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 and without comparable service benefits. According to employee representatives, these demands had been pending before the government for several years.Earlier efforts to resolve the dispute had failed. A nearly six-hour meeting between Power Minister Tarunpreet Singh Sond and representatives of the striking unions on Saturday ended without any agreement.The strike had placed the PSPCL under severe operational stress during a period of high electricity demand. To ensure continuity of supply, the corporation relied on clerical and accounting employees to monitor feeder operations, although they were not trained to undertake technical maintenance. Across the state, Executive Engineers (XENs), Sub-Divisional Engineers (SDOs) and Junior Engineers (JEs) worked extended shifts while supervising emergency maintenance with the assistance of a limited outsourced workforce.The PSPCL management had earlier warned that the ‘no work, no pay’ principle would be enforced if employees continued to remain absent from duty. However, following the assurances given by the Finance Minister, the provision would not be invoked against those who participated in the strike.Employee organisations have made it clear that they would closely monitor the implementation of the government’s assurances and expect the committee to adhere to the timelines announced during the negotiations.