The bus operations of the Puducherry Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) were hit on Tuesday, after over 270 contract workers went on strike, demanding the regularisation of their service.
While the PRTC management is handling key inter-State routes with regular staff, services within the town limits have been thrown out of gear due to the strike.
The contract staff had launched their stir on Monday, demanding the regularisation of the services of drivers and conductors who had been recruited several years ago and continued to work on low salaries and an insecure environment.
“Be it a regular employee or a contract hire, the work carries the same levels of stress. But non-regular staff have to settle for much less,” said a lady conductor, who has been deployed on routes to Karaikal, Nagapattinam and ECR-Chennai. “The pay we take home is as low as ₹8,000, even after working for eleven years. We have resorted to a strike as we can’t put up with this injustice any more,” she said.
On Tuesday, AINRC MLAs T.P.R. Selvame and N.S. Jayabal met the workers and the PRTC management.
“The management has sought time to consider our demand,” a contract driver said. “We will continue our strike till our services are regularised,” he added.
