Karnataka RTC union stand firm on protest despite govt assurance

Bengaluru: Karnataka Road Transport Corporations stood their ground on the protest on February 19, despite the state government on February 18 announcing that it will clear 26 months’ salary arrears of employees and officers of the corporations.

A Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the four corporations has called for a ‘Bengaluru Chalo’ protest, bringing in workers from across the state to protest at Freedom Park.

“Our call for a protest was misinterpreted. We haven’t called for a strike. We called for a protest, asking corporation employees from across the state, who were off duty on Thursday to come support the cause. We didn’t want operations to be affected,” said Vijay Bhaskar, general secretary, KSRTC Staff and Workers’ Federation, adding that about 2,000 people took gathered at Freedom Park on Thursday morning.

The committee has been demanding Rs 1,785 crore in arrears for 38 months (January 1, 2020, to February 28, 2023) and a 25 per cent pay hike from January 1, 2024. However, on Wednesday, the strategies announced it would release Rs 1,271.92 crore to clear 26 months of arrears for the employees and officers of Karnataka's four Road Transport Corporations.

“They’ve met us midway. The wage hike percentage is yet to be decided. The government will discuss it with the union soon. We will be disclosing our next move at 4 pm today,” Bhaskar told DH.

Both Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) officials shared that operations remained unaffected due to the protests on Thursday. “In fact, we had more than 100 per cent operations as we had added extra buses for the jaatre in Kolar,” shared a KSRTC spokesperson.