Govt. to hold talks with transport unions today

The government will hold talks on wage revision and 28 other demands with the 11 striking unions of transport corporation employees on Wednesday.

The strike has put several thousands of commuters to hardship for the past three days with the government unwilling to hold talks with the unions fearing contempt of court.

On Tuesday, the representatives of the unions held talks with the Labour Department and transport corporation officials here for over three hours in the evening.

Emerging out of the meeting, Labour Progressive Federation (LPF) general secretary M. Shanmugam said they would continue with the strike on Wednesday. The unionists have a scheduled meeting with Transport Minister Senthil Balaji at the Secretariat at 10 a.m.

“The final call will be taken at the meeting,” Mr. Shanmugam said.

On the third day of the strike, roughly 50 per cent of the fleet in various transport corporations were operated, union leaders said. In Chennai, the MTC operated with makeshift drivers and conductors.

DA hike

About 1.22 lakh employees of State Transport Undertakings (STU) will get the benefit of seven per cent hike in dearness allowance.

With effect from July 1 , the DA went up from 100 per cent to 107 per cent.