BENGALURU: After four days of protest and negotiations with the State Government, employees of state road transport corporations called off their strike on Monday, allowing complete resumption of bus services after Deputy Chief Minister and Transport Minister Laxman Savadi gave a written statement that out of 10 demands, nine would be met. Employees’ association members, however, said that they will give the government three months to fulfil their demands, failing which they will resort to a protest again.
On Monday morning, though a few buses were operated by the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation, the services of Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation and other state transport corporations were hit. On Sunday, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, Savadi, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai and Revenue Minister R Ashoka held a meeting with transport corporation officials.
Later, Savadi, Ashoka and others held a series of meetings with employees’ union representatives and agreed to consider most of their demands, except that of granting the status of state government employees. Though labour union leaders initially agreed, they later did a U-turn.
The leaders held discussions later on Sunday night, and decided to call off the strike. But they made a formal announcement on Monday, only after getting a written assurance from the government on meeting their demands. The letter was handed over to the employees at Freedom Park and the protest was called off. Earlier on Monday, the Chief Minister held meetings with his cabinet colleagues and had expressed concern over the inconvenience caused to the public and revenue loss to transport corporations.
Strike: Corporation estimates total damage at `9 crore
Farmer leader Kodihalli Chandrashekhar, who was heading the protest, said they will give a threemonth deadline to the government. The demands that the government has agreed to meet include rectifying salary differences, Rs 30 lakh ex-gratia to the employees who died of Covid and action to avoid harassment from senior officials.
All the four state transport corporations have over 1.3 lakh employees and Savadi had said that identifying them as government employees would put a heavy financial burden on the government and would also lead to similar demands from employees of other corporations. During the strike, 38 KSRT C buses were pelted with stones, and the corporation has estimated the total damage at Rs 9 crore, including the loss due to cancelled services. “We are yet to calculate the exact loss,” a KSRT C official said.
What’s in store for staffers
A30L compensation to kin of staffers who died from Covid
Health insurance to all SRTC employees
Transfer policy to be framed for inter-SRTC transfers
Probationary period to be reduced from two years to one
Human Resource MS system to be adopted for employee management
Additional allowance to be given if employees work extra hours
Grievance cell at depot to address harassment by higher officials
Doing away with ‘Not-Issued-Not-Collected’ system