The AP State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) Employees Union (EU) is up in arms against the management’s “anti-worker” policies and has urged the government to withdraw certain proposals that has triggered a sense of insecurity among the workers.
Y.V. Rao and P. Damodar Rao, president and general secretary of the EU respectively, met M. T. Krishna Babu, Principal Secretary, Department of Transport and Roads and Building, on Tuesday and conveyed the concerns of employees to him.
Relay fast
The workers also resorted to relay-hunger strikes from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in all the 29 depots across the 13 districts on Tuesday, to register their protest against what they call “indifference” of the government.
Contract drivers
Faulting the appointment of outsourced staff as drivers, they said this would tantamount to putting the lives of passengers at risk and added that the RTC should fill the vacant driver posts with regular appointments.
When they said that the RTC officials were in favour of granting permission to private buses to enter inside the Pandit Nehru Bus Station, Mr. Krishna Babu denied any such proposal and said the workers need not worry as the government would not give permission to anything that would cause harm to their interests.
Responding to their plea that implementation of the Motor Transport Workers’ Act and Factory Act be extended to the newly-created Public Transport Department (PTD), Mr. Krishna Babu said a decision would be taken on the issue after holding a discussion on it. The leaders said the “anti-worker” stand of the management had forced them to resort to the path of agitation.
The PTD was created to absorb over 52,000 employees of the loss-making APSRTC into the government as the proposed in toto merger of the public transport carrier was not possible. Sources in the department said the Centre’s nod was needed for the merger as it held a 31 % stake in the State transport body. Besides, the division of APSRTC assets and liabilities between A.P. and Telangana is also pending under the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014.
The APSRTC remains a skeletal organisation. The staff absorbed into the government is re-deployed on deputation to run the corporation. “The merger is only on the paper,” an official of the corporation had said.
