A section of employees of road transport corporations, including those from BMTC and KSRTC, will be protesting on Wednesday against a range of issues, including delay in payment of salaries and alleged harassment. However, the employees as well as the transport corporations have said bus services will not be affected.
Uday Kumar G.S., from the joint forum of road transport corporation employees’ associations, said the 300 to 400 employees, who are expected to participate, will be those off duty. “There will be no bandh tomorrow. Services will not be hit. We do not wish to inconvenience commuters. The staff are enduring problems, which we want to bring to the notice of the authorities concerned through a protest on Wednesday,” he said.
Listing out the demands and grievances, a press statement from the Karnataka Rajya Raste Sarige Nigamagala Karmika Sanghatengala Janti Vedike said employees were being targeted with disciplinary action, had not been paid full salaries making it difficult to fend for themselves and their families, and they were being overworked, among other things.
BMTC officials maintained that the protest was being called by a section seeking to highlight internal labour problems, and demanding timely payment of salaries and reduction of work hours for women, among others. “They will submit a memorandum which we will look into, but services will not be affected,” an official said.
In December last year, bus services across Karnataka were crippled after thousands of drivers and conductors of State-run road transport corporations decided to go on a strike demanding that they be made government employees with all benefits. The stand-off between road corporation workers and the State government caused much inconvenience to people.
Savadi’s appeal
Deputy Chief Minister and Transport Minister Laxman M Savadi appealed to the employees to understand the financial distress that the road transport corporations are in due to the pandemic and co-operate. In a press release, he also said that the government is working towards releasing the full salaries with half of the salaries for December and January already disbursed.
