The present crisis in the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) is the creation of a section of employees who are reluctant to work and believe that they can force the government to pay their salaries through frequent strikes without improving productivity, according to an affidavit filed by the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) before the Kerala High Court.
In the affidavit filed on behalf of the KSRTC Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) in response to a writ petition seeking disbursement of salaries to its employees, it had been pointed out that the payment of salaries was not the first priority of the management or the government. The first priority was to provide better public transport to people. The employees could be given salary only if buses were run reliably for the public. Sudden strikes by KSRTC employees would only alienate them from the public.
The KSRTC pointed out that the revenue generated from the ticket and non-ticket streams was not adequate to meet the operational costs and payment of salaries. The daily collection of the KSRTC was increasing. However, breakeven could be achieved only if the employees cooperated with the management.
“Hardworking employees were the backbone of all profit-making organisations. But instead of that, the employees of the KSRTC are threatening to launch indefinite strikes, putting the passengers who pay their salary into difficulty.”
Revenue loss
The affidavit said that when there was a delay in the payment of salary, the Minister for Transport convened a meeting on May 5 and promised that salary would be given on or before May 10. However, two prominent unions declared a strike on May 6, affecting the service of long-distance buses from May 5 till May 7 and resulting in a loss of ₹1 crore. The management had declared dies non for these days and the revenue loss would be recovered from those who did not attend duty on those days.
Every effort of the management to improve productivity was being propagated as exploitation and as an anti-employee measure. All efforts were made to resist at various levels the attempts of the management to improve productivity. The KSRTC had the highest bus-to-staff ratio and the lowest productivity in India. Besides, a large section of the employees was reluctant to cooperate with the attempts of the management to revamp the corporation. The first and foremost aim of the corporation was to generate more daily revenue by providing better transport services. For this, the employees shall be ready to work for more hours than their regular eight-hour duty pattern and according to the needs of the traveling public and not according to their comfort and convenience. However, when the management proposed a 12-hour duty pattern, the same was rejected by the employees. They threatened to launch strike if the management went ahead with the proposal. Though effective steps had been taken to improve the financial conditions, certain employees/officers were creating hindrances.
The allegation of the petitioner that the salary of the petitioner and other lower grade staff were being paid only after disbursing salary to the higher officials was incorrect, the affidavit added.
