COIMBATORE: Responding to objections raised by contract employees over the government’s recent recruitment notification for driver-cum-conductors (DCCs) posts, Transport Minister S S Sivasankar said this is a temporary arrangement to ensure operations are not affected when staff go on leave. The TNSTC has called for applications to fill 3,274 DCC posts.
Speaking to TNIE on Friday, the minister said, “After analysing employee attendance records, we decided to fill the positions in TNSTC with DCC posts. For instance, if four drivers are absent from a branch, we cannot operate those buses. If employees have both licence, we can operate the buses. In light of employee retirement and absence data, we are urgently recruiting new employees.” Sivasankar further said drivers and conductors would be recruited in the next phase.
However, contract employees say they are dprived of job opportunity. P Arunkumar, a temporary conductor, said the notification has dashed their hopes.
P Paramasivan, a conductor in Erode district, said currently very few women are working as conductors and the new licence norm will discourage aspirants.
“Even though TNSTC released DCC notification, it did not mention any criteria for women,” he said.
R Mohanraj, deputy general secretary of the Tamil Nadu Government Transport Uniform Employees Union, said except for a few, most candidates hold only a single licence.
“Due to the DCC mandate, aspirants who have been waiting for long are unable to apply. The DCC licence is suitable only for SETC services, which are operated in long-distance routes,” he explained.