The two-day strike by BMTC and KSRTC unions was called off late Friday night after the state government conceded to most of the demands of the employees.
These include a revision of wages and dearness allowance.
The end to the strike came after a five-hour marathon meeting of Transport Minister R Ashok, senior KSRTC officials and Transport Department officials with union leaders.
Normal services of BMTC, KSRTC and three other corporations will resume from Saturday morning, he said.
Ashok told reporters after the meeting, “The strike has been called off. The state government has conceded to most of the demands. It will pay an additional Rs 1,000 to the 33,000 trainees with effect from September 1, 2012. This takes the total salary being paid to trainees to Rs 8,000 a month. Trainees will be absorbed soon after their two-year training period. This means that the additional burden on the government will be to the tune of Rs 39.6 crore a year.”
“A committee has been formed to look into the demands of the employees. It will submit its report in one month,” Ashok added.The government has also agreed to merge the recently announced 10 per cent salary hike with the basic salary besides the 76.75 per cent dearness allowance currently being given to employees. This was one of the key demands of the union.
By doing this, Ashok said, there will be an additional burden of Rs 250 crore on the government spread over four years. These new wages will come into retrospective effect from April, 2012. The Minister also agreed to withdraw punitive action against employees with immediate effect.
“The employees have agreed to resume work immediately,” Ashok added. All the preventive arrests which were made and also planned were shelved, the minister said