Chennai > As the Tamil Nadu government has failed to meet the promises it had made earlier to the transport workers across the state, the unions plan to go on an indefinite strike. The unions of workers of Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) have issued a 14-day strike notice to the state government, saying that the staff will not work from June 19 if the government is not able to settle the issues through talks. The notice, which was issued by 13 unions including Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU), Labour Progressive Federation (LPF), All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) and Indian National Tarde Union Congress (INTUC), demanded immediate dispersal of the pending arrears along with other demands.
According to the unions, there are about 66,000 TNSTC pensioners across the state. Dues worth nearly Rs 1100 crores were pending as of June 30, 2017. The amount of total retirement dues and provident fund dues to be paid stand at Rs 7,543 crore.
The unions have also demanded pay on par with other government employees. Pointing out the unauthorised fare revision, M Shanmugam of LPF - the union which is affiliated to Dravida Munnetta Kazhakam - was quoted in reports, 'In the government order, the increase in fare was 58 paisa for TNSTC buses and 68 paisa for State Express Transport Corporation (SETC) buses. The government is ignoring this order and is charging way more than what the order specifies.'
The particular step helps private operators and 'there is a need to save these state-owned enterprises not just for our salary, but also because the transport department serves to a large portion of the general public,' he added.
Since the government has raised the fares citing increased expenses, more than 30 lakh passengers have shifted to other modes of transportation. Ideally, an average of 1.8 crore commuters rely on state transportation system on a daily basis. Nearly 1.4 lakh workers are working with the TNSTC with a fleet of over 22,500 buses.
Apart from this, the government scrapped the diesel subsidy for the corporation, and there has been no action against the private players that are operating illegally - eating the revenue of the TNSTC.
Though the government had promised to fulfill the pending dues for retired and employed workers, the arrears are yet to be disbursed. The unions had observed eight-day long strike during January 2018 raising the same set of demands. The strike had been called off after the Madras High Court appointed an arbitrator to resolve the disputes between TNSTC workers and state government. However, nothing has turned out to be in favour of the workers
Credit: News Click
