HYDERABAD: Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao felt that the TSRTC employees’ demand for salary hike was unjustified. At a review here on Tuesday with ministers’ committee and other officials, Rao said that the RTC employees should decide whether they want to run the state own corporation or not.
The ministers’ committee held a meeting with RTC unions on Sunday and briefed Rao on their demands on Tuesday. The RTC employees also decided to issue strike notice, if the government was not positive for pay revision .
During the review, Rao observed that the RTC was running in Rs 2,800 crore losses and it was not possible to further increase salaries. The Chief Minister said the demand for pay hike was absurd and recalled that the TRS government gave good pay hike to RTC employees in 2014 with an assurance that the staff would make the corporation profitable. The State government gave 44 per cent fitment to RTC employees and regularised the services of 4,200 contract workers, Rao recalled.
Despite these facts, the RTC staff decided to serve strike notice, Rao said. If the government hiked the salaries as demanded by employees, it would an additional burden of Rs 1,400 crores on the corporation. The present salary bill was Rs 2,400 crore, Rao said. The salaries of RTC staff in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra were very meagre compared to TSRTC, Rao said. TSRTC was spending 52 per cent of its revenue on salaries, the Chief Minister explained.