THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Nearly 10,000 government employees, including teachers, will retire from service on Saturday.
The state government will have to spend about Rs 4,000 crore to pay various end-of-service benefits to the outgoing employees. Benefits due to employees include commutation of pension, death-cum-retirement gratuity, terminal surrender of leave, provident fund, besides group insurance scheme and state life insurance scheme. The benefits of group insurance and state life insurance schemes are to be paid in the event of death or retirement of the employee, whichever is earlier.
Commutation of pension and PF are the major payments due to retiring employees. Around 20,000 employees retired from service in recent years and at least half of them did so on May 31. This is attributed to an old practice as part of which parents falsely record their children’s birthday as May 31. This was to meet the requirement of completing five years of age for school admission. The practice stopped when birth certificate was made mandatory for school admissions.
In 2024, over 10,000 employees retired on May 31, while the figure was about 11,000 in 2023. Sources in the finance department said mass retirements in May will see a significant decline from 2027 onwards.
Among the state public-sector undertakings, the Kerala State Electricity Board will see over 1,000 personnel retire from service on Saturday.