Workers from road transport corporations across the State staged a demonstration at the Town Hall here on Friday demanding that the Karnataka Essential Services Maintenance Bill, 2013, passed by the Legislative Assembly in the ongoing session, be repealed.
Organised by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions, workers from the Transport Department termed the legislation as “anti-workers and undemocratic”. The Bill, similar to the Essential Services Maintenance Act, seeks to put an end altogether to strikes in water, power, transport, health and services sectors.
Unionists gathered here said workers across the sector will participate in a large rally on December 24 to oppose the government’s unilateral decision.
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“Already, over the past two decades the rights of transport workers have been taken away. Wage hikes have been inadequate and delayed, and the mandatory process of conducting or facilitating Union elections have been ignored. If strikes are outlawed entirely, the workers’ voices will be stifled further,” said Manjunath of the Karnataka Rajya Rasthe Sarige Sanghagala Naukarara Federation.