Chennai, January 5: Thousands of government buses in Tamil Nadu are off the roads as about 10 transport unions have announced an indefinite strike following collapse of wage related talks with the state government. After attending talks with Transport Minister MR Vijayabaskar, trade union representatives said no consensus was arrived at over a key demand on a “factor” determining wage structure.
On the other hand, Vijayabaskar urged the workers to resume work in the interest of the people.
The government’s ‘2.44 factor’ will result in an additional expense of Rs 81 crore per month on transport corporations even as a special increment was being given to those who had joined work between 2013 and 2016, he said.
This wage agreement had the highest revision proposed, where the minimum was Rs 2,684 while the highest was Rs 11,361, the minister said.
Trade union leaders, A Soundarrajan (CITU) and M Shanmugam of DMK backed Labour Progressive Federation (LPF), said that the strike was on after “talks collapsed.” “While our plea was for a 2.57 factor (a wage determination technique), the government said it was not acceptable and insisted on a 2.44 factor,” Shanmugam said.
The unions have demanded fixing the minimum basic salary at Rs 19,500 whereas the government wanted it to be Rs 17,700, he added.
About 10 unions had joined the strike and these comprise about 95 per cent of the 1.4 lakh odd workforce of the state transport corporations. The strike announcement took commuters by surprise as a section of the employees had stopped plying buses in the evening even before the official announcement from the unions came.
With some buses remaining off the roads, people opted for alternative modes of transport such as train, autorickshaws and private transport in various parts of the state.
With inputs from PTI