The Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation Employees Union affiliated to All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) has appealed to the state government to pay salaries to the corporation employees on par with employees of Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB).
J.Lakshmanan, state secretary of the Union told presspersons that this demand was not new and will be highlighted at the state level conference of the employees to be held at Madurai on July 21. The Union has wanted this demand since 1998. The then Transport minister K.Ponmudy accepted the demand and announced that it will be implemented but in vain. With regard to wages, the tenth wage agreement for the employees of the corporation comes to an end on August 2010. The Madurai conference will finalise the demands before the new wage agreement is signed.
Mr. Lakshmanan also pointed out the disparity in salary among the employees of various cadres in the corporation. While salary is paid as per the sixth pay commission recommendation to officials, engineers and supervisors of the corporation, long term wage scheme is implemented for conductors, drivers, clerical staff etc. But in TNEB salary is uniform. A uniform system of salary structure should be followed for all employees in the corporation also, Mr. Lakshmanan said.
Provision should be made in the new wage agreement for payment of pension to nearly 40,000 employees who joined in the corporation after 2003. The Union will also demand time bound promotion to all employees, appointment on the basis of sympathy to the kin of those who died while on duty. He also said that the employees of the corporation were overloaded with work. Because of this accidents take place. Overloading should be stopped. They were also harassed using various punishments like suspension, dismissal, depromotion etc. These anti-labour measures should be stopped.
