Chennai: Striking transport employees on Sunday refused to budge from their belligerent stand of continuing with their indefinite agitation and announced that they would knock at the doors of the Madras High Court seeking a review of its verdict asking them to get back to work immediately.
“On Monday, we want the court to hear our plea and then give the
order. The initial verdict was given without considering our side of the story”, said trade union leader, A Soundarrajan (CITU) said. He added that the transport department's claims on the number of buses running in the city are false and also questioned if they are earning extra money by claiming to operate buses that are actually standing idle at depots and so are paying salaries to workers.
However, the transport minister, M.R.Vijayabhaskar, in a press meet on Sunday, alleged that CITU is misleading the public on the action being taken by the government. Also, he claimed that a total due amount of '2,175 crore was cleared in the last eight months.
Regarding the allegations on “unskilled” temporary workers roped in by the department, he said all the drivers have experience of driving school buses and skill is not the factor behind the accidents.
On Saturday, he warned the striking employees of the State transport corporations of stern action if they failed to return to work immediately. However, the plight continues to be the same. When asked about this, he said an action will be taken once the court issues order.
The strike was declared on Thursday after negotiations by the staff unions with State transport department demanding wage revision among other things, failed.
The striking employees of State transport have been insisting on a pay scale revision to Rs 30,000. However, the authorities have agreed in principle to pay only Rs 24,400, which the employees feel is a great injustice for the workers who deal with severe traffic and stress on a daily basis.
The dues to be paid to the transport employees including retirement and provident fund dues stand at Rs 7,543 crore.Vijayabaskar said th at Rs 205 crore would be released to retired employees on January 11 and remaining Rs 380 crore would be settled soon.
