TSRTC unions form JAC even as CM KCR says no

Hyderabad: Even as Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had announced that there would be no unions in the State-run Road Transport Corporation, about 10 TSRTC unions have collectively approached the Labour Commissioner for registration of JAC to take up their various demands.

The TSRTC unions, including Employees Union, Telangana Jathiya Mazdoor Union, Staff Workers Federation, National Mazdoor Union and others collectively formed a Joint Action Committee to take up their issues with the management. As per the instructions of Chief Minister, there is no recognition of unions in the Corporation and the committees formed by the management are said not to be of much use for the employees.

The TSRTC JAC chairman K Raji Reddy said that since they have not received any response from the government even after submitting representation to the Transport Minister and also to the TSRTC MD, they have approached the Labour Commissioner.

He alleged that the management was not implementing the Payment of Wages Act and delaying the salaries every month by giving after 15 to 20 days. The job nomenclature was also not implemented and the drivers and conductors were being asked to do Hamali works, he alleged. He also pointed out that the saved money of employees was also not given to them as the funds were not given to the Credit Cooperative Society (CCS). The Provident Fund amount contributed by the employees was also utilised by the management, he alleged.

The JAC chairman said that the RTC employees were due for pay revision in April, 2017 and another pay revision should be taken up from April 1, 2021 and five DAs were pending. However, there was no response from the management, he added.

The JAC vice-chairman K Hanmanthu Mudiraj said that the management should accept representations from registered trade unions in the RTC as per Trade Union Act-1926.

However, the management was not accepting the same besides diluting various Acts. With management not honouring the representations of the unions, 10 unions have collectively formed the TSRTC JAC.

Convener P Kamal Reddy said that they have requested the Labour Commissioner to instruct the management to honour the representations of workers and bring solutions to their problems. Meanwhile, vexed with the attitude of the management, the JAC leaders gave a call for 'Chalo Bus Bhavan' on August 3.