Busmen go on strike as talks fail

According to union members, they had been pressing the Transport Department to pay attention on their demands like wage increase and disbursal of arrears and had already warned of strike, if the government failed to address their grievances. Subsequently, talks were held at Chromepet MTC Workshop on Thursday afternoon and it lasted several hours.

The union members demanded the government fix 2.57 percentage of wage revision once in three years, meaning that if an employee gets basic pay of Rs 10,000, it should be multiplied by 2.57. However, the government remained firm and fixed it at 2.44 per cent.

Speaking to DTNext, A Soundararajan, president, Tamil Nadu State Transport Employees Federation, said, “The government’s approach towards transport employees is not fair. So, we have no option, but to go on strike.” However, the union leaders will always be ready to hold talks, if the government is willing, he added.

Similarly, M Shanmugam, general secretary of Labour Progressive Federation (LPF), said, “The government had accepted the wage revision provision once in three years. But, it did not accept the percentage (2.57) of wage revision. We will never accept this.” All government buses, including TNSTC, SETC and local town buses and MTC will be off the roads and depots, he said.

Meanwhile, official sources said that the transport minister held another meeting with officials as to how to handle the situation during strike. Around 22,000 buses are plying in the state with a staff strength of 1.43 lakh employees. Later, Vijayabhaskar said that all government buses would operate in the usual manner and AIADMK’s trade union wing Anna Thozhil Sanga Peravai (ATP) would run the buses. “If any trade union members attempt to disrupt services, stern action will be taken,” the minister said.