Talks between officials of the Transport Department and representatives of trade unions for discussion of various demands, including wage revision, took place at the Metropolitan Transport Corporation training centre in Chromepet on Tuesday. State Transport Minister, M.R. Vijayabhaskar presided over the meeting, which lasted for more than two hours. The date for the next round of talks would be announced later.
Representatives of 48 trade unions participated in the meeting and the major issue put forward by the leaders was the delay in disbursal of pension to retired transport workers.
The Minister said the pension amount due to the workers remained at ₹1,200 crore and a decision on this would be arrived at after consulting other departments and after a submission to the Chief Minister. He said that 1.45 lakh workers are in service and more than 22,300 buses are operated by various State transport corporations.
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The operational losses incurred due to operating buses on non-profit routes had made a dent in the financial situation of the transport department, the Minister said.
A. Soundararajan from the Centre of Indian Trade Unions said it was not appropriate to make the workers suffer for the losses made by the transport corporations. The State Transport department should bridge the gap in revenue. “We have outlined our demands and on March 15, we are planning to meet the Chief Minister, Finance Minister and Transport Minister to stress our demands,” he said.
Trade union representatives said the management had asked for time to discuss these issues with finance department officials, which they had agreed to and hoped to discuss the pending issues in the next round of talks.
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