» Talks With TSRTC Employees Inconclusive, Strike On
Talks With TSRTC Employees Inconclusive, Strike On
With the Telangana government offering only a 15% interim relief against the 21% demanded by them, the TSRTC employees are planning to go on their proposed strike.
While the state government has expressed willingness to give a 15% salary hike as an interim relief against the 21% demanded by them, the RTC employees represented by the Telangana Mazdoor Union (TMU) are reportedly sticking to their guns and planning to go ahead with the strike.
The government is unwilling to concede the demand for 21% interim relief as it will burden the beleagured corporation by an additional Rs 900 crores. It is ready to give only 15%, and will take a decision at a later date on a PRC and a higher wage hike.
TMU honorary president and Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao on Sunday held another round of discussions with the union leaders and suggested that they accept this offer and refrain from the strike proposed from Monday. But union leaders' JAC chief Raji Reddy called upon the RTC working class to get ready for the strike.
For the uninitiated, the TRS government gave a 44% hike to the RTC employees in the early days of coming to power when it had given a 43% fitment to other state government employees. The TMU is now appealing to the government for another pay scale from April 2017 that it claims the employees were supposed to get. And Harish Rao and other ministers including Mahender Reddy, K T Rama Rao and Etela Rajender, and TSRTC Chairman Somarapu Satyanarayana have been unable to convince them to back off.
The entire transportation system in the state will go haywire if the strike starts from June 10 midnight. The government is planning to use ESMA on the RTC staff if they fail to fall in line. A decision is yet to be taken on the issue, and the ball is now in Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's court. Harish Rao and Rajender are expected to speak with him on the issue late this evening.