Finance department mulls half salaries for transport staff

A proposal by the B S Yediyurappa-led Finance department to cut costs in the state-run road transport corporations has irked not only the unions, but also Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi.

The Finance department has suggested employing half the staffers for 15 days of a month and the other half for the next 15 months - over the next four months. While only half salaries will be paid in the four-month period, the rest will be paid after all fleets of various transport utilities resume full-fledged
operations.

Sources say that the proposal by Finance department came as losses piled up for Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) and others.

In May, the RTCs were forced to approach the government for Rs 363 crore, which is the monthly wage bill for 1.32 lakh employees. Before the lockdown choked the RTCs of funds causing losses worth hundreds of crores, revenue generated by them footed the wage bill.

Speaking to DH, Transport Minister Savadi said that the Finance department has sought an opinion on whether it was possible to do so. “The proposal is recent. In the review meeting of the department chaired by Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa scheduled this week, we will convince the CM that this cannot be done,” he said.

The government should follow the same parameters it has used to pay government employees from other departments and ensure that salaries of RTC staffers, too, are paid in full, Savadi added.

H V Ananth Subbarao of KSRTC staff and workers federation said that they were “totally opposed” to the proposal. “Savadi has noted that the state government owes around Rs 2,900 crore to KSRTC and other RTCs. There will be sufficient funds to pay the salaries if the amount is paid by the government,” he said.

A KSRTC employee from Mangaluru depot said that though the proposal assured payment of the salaries due over a four-month period, it was not acceptable to the employees. “There is a trust deficit,” he said, adding that employees feared that the dues will not be paid at all.