Close to 1,000 drivers, conductors and other employees of the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC), Coimbatore Region, staged an agitation at their head office on Mettupalayam Road on Tuesday, seeking payment of dearness allowance arrears and to redress their other grievances.
The protest was organised by a Joint Action Committee comprising 11 trade unions (including Labour Progressive Federation of Dravida Munetra Kazhagam, the Centre of Indian Trade Unions and the All India Trade Union Congress) formed three months ago.
General Secretary of CITU, Coimbatore Region, M. Arunagirinathan said that of the 20 TNSTC Corporations in the State, the Coimbatore and Tirunelveli corporations did not pay the dearness allowance for their employees for the last 14 months.
He claimed that Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 25,000 is due for employees across various ranks and that about 12,000 of them were affected in the Coimbatore Region. About the interim hike in salaries by Rs. 1,000 a month that was announced by the State Government – on Monday – the trade union representatives said that it was not acceptable.
They said that the salary hike was fixed at Rs. 2,000 a month in 2010. The demonstrators asked the government to hold talks with representatives of all trade unions before finalising their salary. They urged the transport corporation officials to end the alleged atrocities of the employees attached to the All India Anna Dravida Munetra Kazhagam’s trade union. They demonstrators also sought payment of gratuity of retired TNSTC employees that was not paid for two years and to make the calculation of their incentives transparent.
Trade union representatives said that the demonstration was called off after Managing Director TNSTC Coimbatore E. Deverajan reportedly promised to pay their dearness allowance arrears in instalments and to fulfil their other demands in time.
