The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) on Thursday signed an agreement with the employees' unions revising the salaries and other benefits of the employees of the transport utility after a gap of 11 years.
The minimum basic salary has been revised to ₹ 23,000 and the maximum, to ₹ 1,05,300. The benefits will be available to the employees starting with the salary for the month of January. The new master scale is the same as the 11th Pay Revision Commission recommendations for other government employees.
KSRTC chairman and managing Director Biju Prabhakar and the representatives of the KSRTC Employees Association (CITU), the INTUC-affiliated Transport Democratic Federation (TDF) and the Kerala State Transport Employees' Sangh (BMS) signed the agreement in the presence of Minister for Transport Antony Raju.
The agreement will be in force for a five-year-period starting June 1, 2021. Key recommendations include 4% of the basic pay as House Rent Allowance (HRA) with a minimum of ₹ 1200 and maximum of ₹ 5000, and fitment benefit at the rate of 10%. The Death-cum-Retirement Gratuity (DCRG) has been increased from ₹ 7 lakh to ₹ 10 lakh. The commuted value of pension will continue to be 20%.
Drivers who complete 20 duties a month will be paid ₹20 per duty as special allowance. The special allowance will be ₹100 each for every additional duty.
New cadre
A new cadre -- driver-cum-conductor -- will be created in the KSRTC. They will be deployed in long-distance services that have a running time of over 8 hours. Crew change will be implemented in inter-State services that cover distance above 500 km.
Reservation counters of the KSRTC will be confined to major depots. As part of increasing the revenue, the utility will appoint direct ticket selling agents. Women employees can avail leave without allowance for up to a year in addition to the 180-day maternity leave. Employees who avail themselves of this benefit will be eligible for a monthly child-care allowance of ₹5,000.
The pension will be revised and made a part of the agreement after consultations with the departments of Finance and Cooperation and the recognised employees' unions.
Pay revision was last implemented in the KSRTC on March 1, 2011. Its term ended on February 28, 2016.
