Resolve bus strike immediately

With employees of state-owned transport corporations going on an indefinite strike and pulling buses off the roads, millions of commuters have been put to hardship. People have been stranded since Tuesday night without transport to their homes, hospitals or places of work, and travel between villages and towns across Karnataka has come to a halt more or less. The bus transport strike has forced universities to postpone examinations and students who have been attending offline classes that restarted only recently are now unable to do so due to lack of transport. Many stranded commuters have been forced to shell out exorbitant sums to travel in private buses and vans. The bus transport strike has been called by the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation Employees’ League (KSRTC-EL), which is demanding wages for employees as per the state government’s Sixth Pay Commission. The government has rejected the demand but said it will give employees an 8% salary hike. Rejecting the government’s offer, the RTC employees went on a flash strike. The government has threatened to invoke the Essential Services Management Act to force the striking employees to get back to work. Chief Minister Yediyurappa has also warned them against violating regulations in place for Covid-19.

Neither the government nor the bus employees’ unions are conducting themselves responsibly; the plight of commuters seems to be of little concern to either. The face-off could have been avoided. A revision in the salaries and allowances of RTC employees is long overdue and the government could have come up with a more generous offer. However, the KSRTC-EL’s strike is unreasonable and ill-timed. They had given notice of the strike from Wednesday but took buses off the roads several hours ahead, leaving commuters stranded and without alternative arrangements. Besides, the union’s demand that RTC employees be absorbed as government employees is unreasonable. This is not a demand that can be conceded overnight as it involves policy decisions. Moreover, as the government has pointed out, pay hikes cannot be announced or implemented now as the model code of conduct is in effect due to by-elections in the state.

The KSRTC-EL is a recently formed union. Are its leaders flexing their muscles to consolidate control over employees? If this is the case, this strike could extend into next week. Those travelling back to their villages for Ugadi will be impacted, resulting in overcrowding of private buses at a time when a second wave of Covid-19 infections is raging. The bus employees must call off the strike immediately in the public interest.