The Delhi Stock Exchange Karamchari Union, which is demanding pay revision for the non-executive staff of the exchange on the lines of the Fifth Pay Commission's recommendation, would first hold relay hunger strike and, if the management did not budge by January next, it would go on an indefinite hunger strike, said representatives of the union.

This is the lowest pay structure that the union is demanding as compared to the wages paid to the non-executive staff of the other exchanges.

"If this is not acceptable to the management, it can make our pay at par with that of the Bombay Stock Exchange or the Madras Stock Exchange," union president Kuber Singh said.

The average salary of non-executive staff comes to around Rs 3,000 per month at DSE, Singh claimed. While the peon gets around Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000at the DSE, his counterpart at BSE received around Rs 10,000 per month. Wage structure at MSE is made at par with the Central Bank.

Besides, there is a gross discrimination in the salary of non-executive and executive staff. While the executive director takes away 10 per cent of the total wage fund, the other 35 to 40 employees in the category of executive ranks get 45 per cent of the fund. The 135 employees in the non-executive posts share the remaining 45 per cent, the union president said.

Singh said, "We do not want to harm the interests of DSE and have decided to launch only hunger strike in the beginning. However, if our demands were not met even after our relay hunger strike this month and the indefinite hunger strike next month, we will be left with no option but to strike work later."

The union, which is affiliated with AITUC, has been holding demonstrations in front of the local bourse office in support of their demand since November 27. AITUC vice president and Rajya Sabha MP Gurudas Dasguptatook up the demands of the union with the Securities and Exchange Board of India chairman D R Mehta on Monday last. Mehta assured Dasgupta of his intervention to settle the issue, AITUC secretary D L Sachdev claimed.

Dasgupta has also sought time from Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha to resolve the crisis, he said.