Comments
Thousands of passengers across Tamil Nadu, particularly office-goers and students, were badly impacted by a strike by government transport workers’ unions seeking a wage increase.
With buses not plying, demand for cab aggregators such as Ola and Uber shot up, even as auto rickshaw drivers made quick money by over-charging passengers.
Wage demand Over one lakh employees from various government transport undertakings, including Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation, Metropolitan Transport Corporation and State Express Transport Corporation, participated in the strike, demanding a 2.57 times increase in wages.
The State government offered a 2.41-2.44 times rise, which was rejected by union representatives in a meeting with TN Transport Minister MR Vijayabhaskar last night.
On Friday, the State government urged the striking employees to return to work. In a detailed statement on the government being amenable to workers’ demands, Vijayabhaskar pointed out that the Madras High Court has ordered that the strike is not legal.
In a detailed statement to the media, the Minister said the 13th wage revision for transport employees was held on January 4. There have been 23 rounds of discussions so far. Despite the financial constraints of transport corporations a wage revision providing for 2.44 times increase in basic pay and once in three years revision was signed on Thursday. Entry level wages have been hiked, arrears of over 15 years for pensioners and accident compensation have also been paid. But workers have gone on strike causing inconvenience to the public, he said.
In Chennai, union members belonging to the AIADMK ran a skeletal bus service, driving in ‘mufti’. Some of the buses were operated by lorry drivers.
Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami held a meeting that was attended by Deputy Chief Minister Panneerselvam and Vijayabhaskar.
In a press release, the transport unions said in the past 16 months, they held 21 discussions with the State government on various issues, including a wage increase.
They also struck work on May 15 and 16, and later called it off after an assurance given by three ministers. However, no action was taken, they said.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.