Rs 1,200 a month interim relief for transport staff

Emerging from a three-hour-long meeting, Vijayabhaskar announced that both sides have agreed for an interim relief until the wage revision agreement is signed. He claimed the talks were successful.

Monthly pay packet of Transport employees would be increased by Rs 1,200 and the State-run Transport corporations put together would incur an additional recurring expenditure of Rs 15 crore per month in this regard.

“We have proposed to hold the next round of talks pertaining to wage revision agreement in early December.

A consensus is likely to be arrived at in the next meeting,” Vijayabhaskar said.

To a question on recurring losses netted by Transport corporations, Vijayabhaskar pointed out that these ventures are service oriented. “We don’t factor-in our operational costs”, he reiterated.

As far as the outstanding dues pending for its employees and retirees, the minister maintained that the matter was pending before the Madras High Court. “We would file a report detailing measures to clear the dues before the court as the case comes up for hearing on October 9”, he said.

Following the minister, Trade Unionists led by M Shanmugam of LPF and A S Soundararajan of CITU announced that they stood firm on their demands regarding the revision and clearance of outstanding dues to the tune of Rs 7,000 crore.

“We have decided not to go on with the strike agenda considering the festive days round the corner. If we take it forward, it would affect every passenger who rely on State-run buses”, they said.