The Labour Commissioner will chair a meeting here on December 14 to hear the views of online taxi drivers who are on the warpath demanding minimum wages and lessening of commission (over 26% now) charged by online-taxi firms.
Drivers unions had struck work twice during the past month, while a union leader began a hunger strike airing the demands.
The decision to hold talks with representatives of unions followed a meeting here on Friday between Regional Joint Labour Commissioner K. Srilal, managers of online firms, and drivers union leaders.
The other demands raised by unions include convening of a meeting by the Minister for Transport with representatives of taxi and online taxi car unions to find a lasting solution to issues in the sector, halting the practice of not giving agreed-upon wages to drivers and ousting of drivers from service without notice, initiation of steps against a firm that rolled out its own taxi cars in violation of the aggregator policy, and stopping firms from “pressurising” drivers to operate “illegal” share and pool taxi trips.
Transport Commissioner K. Padmakumar had earlier said that issues that had arisen between online taxi firms and taxi drivers would be brought to the notice of the State government. Though online taxis play a key role in lessening the number of private vehicles in cities, there is no system at the government level to regulate the sector since firms rely on their own software to cater for commuters.
Issues like fare revision will be placed before the Fare Revision Commission, after government-level consultations with stakeholder representatives and the Labour Commissioner.
The Transport Department will also recommend formulation of an online taxi policy and constitution of a commission to study issues. The views of the members of the public too will be taken into account, he added.