Karnataka: RTC staff announce indefinite strike from March 21

Earlier this month, the KSRTC Employees' Koota called an definite strike from March 24 onwards

Bus operations may be disrupted across Karnataka in the coming days as the Joint Action Committee of RTC Trade Unions has called an indefinite strike starting at 6 am, March 21.

The committee represents six employee associations of road transport corporations in the state. Earlier this month, the KSRTC Employees' Koota, which claims to represent over 15,000 of the public transporter's 35,013 employees, called an indefinite strike from March 24 onwards. Its main demand is the implementation of the 6th pay commission for RTC employees.

If both strikes go on, the operations of all four state-run RTCs in Karnataka — KSRTC, BMTC, NWKRTC and KKRTC — will be seriously affected.

On Monday, the committee wrote a letter to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, accusing him of not meeting employees' demands, including raising their wages.

While RTC employees get a raise in their dearness allowance (which is linked to inflation), they haven't had a pay hike for more than six years now.

As per the rules, RTC staff should get a 5 per cent-12 per cent pay rise every four years. The last time they got a pay hike was in 2016. They were due for a jump in pay in 2020, but Covid and the losses suffered by the RTCs prevented that.

On February 21, Bommai promised to look into the employees' demands. Six days later, the committee held a meeting with KSRTC and BMTC officials and presented its demands. On March 8, Transport Minister B Sriramulu announced a 10 per cent hike in basic pay but the committee didn't agree to this. Sriramulu promised to discuss the matter with the Chief Minister. But nothing has happened since, according to the committee.

With Assembly election dates set to be announced in the next few weeks, the committee feels that time is running out for the government to act. It wants the government to fulfil the following demands:

a) Merge the dearness allowance with the basic pay and hike the revised basic pay by 25 per cent. The annual pay hike should be a minimum of 3 per cent.

b) All allowances being paid to bus drivers, conductors, and technical and administrative staff should be raised between three and five times.

c) All employees who joined April 2021 strike should be reinstated unconditionally and their names be removed from the FIRs.

There will also be a strike preparatory meeting on March 17, according to the committee.