Thousands of employees of the Gujarat government, including schoolteachers, joined a “mass casual leave” protest across the state on Saturday demanding implementation of the old pension scheme (OPS).

The umbrella union bodies had on Friday called off the agitation, stating that the state government has accepted most of their demands, but the district-level unions claimed that the government had not considered their main demand for OPS.

“Our main demand was OPS and this issue was not resolved by the state government on Friday. This issue affects each and every employee of the state and hence, they have decided to join the mass CL protest today,” said Mahesh Mori, convener of the Rashtriya Samyukt Morcha, Saurashtra region.

Nearly 7,000 government teachers were on leave on Saturday in Bhavnagar district alone, he said.

Unions representing teachers, panchayat health workers and revenue employees have been protesting for some time for the reintroduction of OPS.

In Gandhinagar, a large number of employees took out a rally and skipped work.

“The government has agreed to give OPS only to employees who have joined service before 2005, while most of us have joined after 2005,” a protesting employee said.