BENGALURU: Buses run by state transport corporations will stay off roads from 6 am on Tuesday, as corporation employees decided to go ahead with their indefinite strike after talks with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah failed on Monday. Though the state government is roping in private vehicles to minimise impact on travellers, the strike will still inconvenience lakhs of commuters as the operation of thousands of state-operated buses across Karnataka and outside will be affected.
Though the Karnataka High Court on Monday directed the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of Trade Unions of KSRTC, led by AITUC-affiliated KSRTC Staff and Workers’ Federation, to put on hold the proposed indefinite strike from August 5 for a day, the JAC said it received the HC writ petition and order copy only by 7.30 pm and all the members of the JAC were not available for discussion and decision. “We have submitted the writ petition for legal opinion and will decide on Tuesday. The strike will start as announced,” Federation General Secretary Vijaya Bhaskar said.
The JAC, which consists of trade unions of Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), North Western Road Transport Corporation (NWKRTC) and Kalyana Karnataka West Road Transport Corporation (KKRTC), had called for an indefinite strike seeking implementation of many of their demands. The major demands include 25% pay hike with effect from January 1, 2024, settlement of pending salary arrears for 38 months (January 1, 2020, to February 28, 2023) and wage revision.
Govt is free to do what it wants: Fed prez
On Monday, Siddaramaiah chaired a high-level meeting with Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy, federation president HV Anantha Subbarao and JAC representatives at Vidhana Soudha. After the meeting that lasted for almost three hours, Subbarao said, “Siddaramaiah remained non-committal on the 25% wage hike revision from January 1, 2024. As against the clearance of 38 months’ salary arrears, the CM has agreed to pay only 14 months. The stalemate continues and we are going ahead with the strike.”
On the operation of private buses to counter the strike, Subbarao said the government is free to do whatever it wants. “Our RTC employees will stay at home and not report to work,” he added.
When pointed out that the government had invoked ESMA (Essential Services Maintenance Act), cancelled leaves and taken action against those who took part in the strike in 2020, Subbarao said, “We have served a strike notice. Our employees will not budge to the government’s threat. Any victimisation of transport employees will not be tolerated, and we will fight it out.”
JAC representatives alleged that Siddaramaiah projects himself as a socialist CM, but has not kept his word of fulfilling the demands of transport employees, who strive day and night for the success of the Congress government’s ‘Shakti’ scheme, which offers free travel for women. They said they are open to talks anytime, but the strike will be called off only if their demands are met.
The CM, however, blamed the trade unions, saying their demands are unreasonable. “During my tenure as CM, I revised the salary in 2016 with a 12.5% hike.
In 2020, there was no hike due to the Covid. In 2023, the previous government hiked the salary by 15%.
The Srinivas Murthy committee recommended paying salary arrears from January 1, 2022 to February 28, 2023, which we have accepted.
But the demand for salary arrears for 38 months is unreasonable.”
Lakhs of passengers to be affected
Lakhs of people across Karnataka will be severely affected by the strike. The four RTCs -- KSRTC, BMTC, KKRTC and NWKRTC -- together have a fleet of over 24,000 with over 1.15 lakh employees.
The daily average total ridership of the four RTCs is over 1.23 crore with BMTC carrying nearly 40 lakh, followed by KSRTC with 38 lakh. Private operators were not fully ready to ply their vehicles on Tuesday and were hoping that JAC will postpone the strike by a day honouring the High Court order.
This will leave passengers with no commute options, especially outside Bengaluru.
Alternative arrangements
The State Transport Department has prepared a list of private travel vehicles, including contract carriages, stage carriages, private service vehicles and maxi cabs
Transport officials’ data revealed that there are over 32,000 such private vehicles that can be pressed into service immediately, operating with government bus fares
The government would request companies to enable ‘work from home’ so that private employees avoid travelling