Staff of the Telangana State Highway Transport Company (TGSRTC) are gearing up for a strike their Joint Motion Committee (JAC) has known as from Wednesday, with almost 41,000 workers and 6,000-plus buses anticipated to be off the roads, affecting over 60 lakh passengers day by day.
With solely a day to go for the strike, the JAC has determined to go forward regardless of assurances from Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar and Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy. On Monday night, the JAC led a labour march from RTC Kala Bhavan to Bus Bhavan to indicate the power and unity of the workers forward of the strike.
The JAC has an extended checklist of 21 calls for that they want to be resolved with assist from the administration and the federal government. Key calls for embody the implementation of the long-pending merger of the RTC with the state authorities, implementation of two Pay Revision Commissions (PRC), cost of pending dues in the direction of the Credit score Cooperative Society (CCS) and the workers’ provident fund, wage revision and pending allowances, scrapping the prolonged work schedule, stopping privatisation and investing in electrical buses, lifting restrictions on commerce unions, implementation of the Motor Transport Staff Act, and jobs underneath the breadwinner scheme regularly.
“The federal government, in its election manifesto, mentioned all TSRTC workers will likely be built-in into the federal government, wage revisions will likely be made, unions will likely be revived, RTC will likely be developed in each means and new buses will likely be bought. However even after 18 months of coming to energy, the Congress celebration has not built-in the RTC workers into the federal government, and their issues haven’t been resolved,” Okay Hanumanthu Mudiraj, co-chairman of the JAC, mentioned on Monday.
In response to the strike name, Ponnam Prabhakar lately assured the workers that the federal government was prepared to debate their calls for and urged them to rethink the strike in gentle of the company’s enhancing monetary state of affairs. Revanth Reddy has additionally appealed to the employees to name off the strike, stating that the RTC is starting to make income and {that a} strike could be detrimental to the organisation’s progress. He has additionally identified steps taken to clear a number of the pending dues from the earlier authorities.
“Giving statements within the press is one factor and formally inviting the JAC for talks is one. We have now not acquired such invites for talks from the federal government or the minister’s workplace. Our calls for are real and the ball is within the court docket of the federal government,” mentioned M Thomas Reddy, vice-chairman of the JAC, when contacted.
On Monday, the TGSRTC issued a press release interesting to its workers in opposition to collaborating within the strike. “Each rupee that the group earns is being spent on your welfare. As you all know, regardless of monetary difficulties, the administration supplied the long-pending 2017 PRC with a 21% fitment in Could 2024. The ten pending DAs from 2019 have been launched in phases. ₹280 crore associated to RPS-2013 bonds has been paid. For the previous three and a half years, salaries have been paid on the first of each month with out fail. PF and CCS restoration quantities are being paid commonly each month, and the administration is step by step lowering the arrears,” the assertion learn.
Story continues under this advert
Additional, it added that the organisation prioritised the welfare of the workers regardless of the monetary difficulties. “A strike at this juncture, when the group is simply recovering and shifting on the trail of improvement, will trigger irreparable harm to the group and the workers…Strikes are prohibited in RTC as per the ESMA Act. As per the principles of the group, a strike is against the law. Authorized motion will likely be taken in opposition to these answerable for threatening workers or obstructing duties within the title of a strike,” the assertion mentioned, including that the administration was dedicated to resolving the issues of the workers with the cooperation of the state authorities.
Thomas Reddy responded that it has been three months for the reason that JAC gave a strike discover to the TGSRTC administration. “We weren’t known as for a gathering. The labour commissioner known as the administration twice for a gathering with JAC and every time, the administration didn’t reply. On Could 1, the chief minister assured us that our grievances could be resolved. Neither the federal government nor the administration has come ahead but. The transport minister’s workplace additionally has not invited us formally,” he mentioned.
Reddy mentioned the federal government mustn’t disguise behind excuses comparable to monetary constraints to satisfy its electoral guarantees. “With no recruitment, the workload on workers has immensely elevated. As an alternative of eight hours, workers are working 16 hours. There isn’t any illustration for staff as a result of lack of commerce unions,” he mentioned, including that the JAC was nonetheless prepared in addition to ready for official talks with the federal government.