Overcoming opposition of employees and trade unions, the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) on Monday decided to roll out eight-hour daily single duty for the operating crew in stages.
The breakthrough was achieved at a meeting convened by KSRTC Chairman and Managing Director A. Hemachandran with the two recognised unions - the CITU-affiliated Kerala State Road Transport Employees Association (KSRTEA) and the INTUC-affiliated Transport Democratic Federation (TDF) - and the unrecognised unions the AITUC-affiliated KSTEU and the BMS-affiliated KSTES at the Transport Bhavan here.
The meeting decided that duties of the operating crew in all depots that can be made single will be converted into eight hours at the earliest.
For this, a committee comprising the district transport officer, administrative officer, depot engineer, head vehicle supervisor, and representatives of the KSRTEA and the TDF will submit a report in 15 days. The KSRTC decided to seek legal opinion from the government whether it is compulsory for the management to implement the single duty system for all duties as suggested by IIM Professor Sushil Khanna in his ‘Crisis and Turnaround strategy’ report for overcoming the crisis in the utility.
The meeting decided to implement crew change for long-distance and inter-State services where the driver and conductor will have to work two nights continuously. The KSRTC will take steps to set up restrooms and canteen facilities for them. It was also agreed to legally revise the running time of trips following complaints of late running of long-distance schedules.
The new duty pattern rolled out on July 15 last when M. G. Rajamanickam was the CMD ran into trouble as the KSRTEA and TDF opposed it. The TDF approached the High Court seeking to annul the order pointing out the disparity in fixing the duty pattern based on collection and the ill-will created among drivers and conductors. The Forum for Justice and Welfare Union also approached the court against the move.
As per the Motor Transport Workers Act, 1961, eight-hour duty was introduced in the KSRTC with 30 minutes for sign-in, 30 minutes for sign-off, and 30 minutes for rest after four-and-a-half hours.
The crew have to log in 48 duty hours a week and double the wages has to be given for every excess hour after eight hours. The double duty system was introduced during the tenure of R. Balakrishna Pillai as Transport Minister with the operating crew doing duty for 15 hours at a stretch. TDF working president R. Sasidharan said all unions who were represented at the meeting agreed to the decisions and stage by stage execution of single duty.
