Labour Dept to hold talks with transport unions

The Confederation of Trade Unions, which comprises of CITU, AITUC, LPF and independent union TTSF, will take part in the meet.  This development comes after nearly 500 transport workers attached to MTC, Chennai and transport corporation in Tiruvannamalai assembled at the DMS on Wednesday.

We are expecting that the officials will agree to increase the daily wages of contract workers during the meet. Currently, they are drawing a salary of Rs 435-Rs 450, said P Balakrishnan, President of State Employees Union, which is affiliated to CITU.

According to sources, the daily wage of technical staff working on contract basis will be increased to Rs 631. The daily wage of drivers and conductors are expected to be raised to Rs 629 and Rs 613 respectively. Arumuga Nainar of CITU said that the Labour Department has done nothing despite two strike notices given last year. They merely prolonged the conciliation process.

A member of Retired Employees Welfare Association (REWA) said, “The pensioners are receiving monthly pension only on 8th or 9th of every month. Moreover, gratuity and other dues are also not settled for the workers who retired since August of last year.”  

The last meet was held in November where the government agreed to disburse Deepavali bonuses to the transport workers. Since last year, the transport workers had staged a series of protests against the management.

The long pending demands of the workers include deductions from the workers’ wages should not be diverted for other purposes, proposal to amend the Motor Vehicles Act should be stopped, sanctioning of DA arrears and Earned Leaves, 8-hour shift and confirmation of drivers in the reserve category.