State govt. issues order hiking salary of Road Transport Corporation employees by 15%; unions unhappy

Strike stance unchanged, say employees; office-bearers to meet today

A day after Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai made an announcement about increasing the basic salary of employees of the road transport corporations (RTCs) by 15%, the State government issued the order on Friday evening.

The pay revision comes after several rounds of meetings with office-bearers of the Joint Action Committee of employees’ trade unions and the managements of the corporations. The Joint Action Committee had earlier announced that if the State government fails to increase basic salaries of the staff by 20%, employees will go on indefinite strike from March 21.

The State government started negotiations with Transport Minister B. Sriramulu making promise of hike by 10%. Later, in the meeting with the MDs of the corporation, it was proposed to increase up to 14%, and on Thursday, the Chief Minister announced that the salary of employees will be increased by 15%.

All the four corporations (KSRTC, BMTC, NWKRTC, and KKRTC) have a workforce of 1.07 lakh employees. The pay revision for the employees has been pending since January 2020.

The order issued by the State government states that 15% hike will be done in basic pay of the staff, including of officers, in basic salaries drawn during December 31, 2019. The order also states that the committee that was formed for reforming the corporation will decide on payment of arrears by consulting representatives of employees union and other stakeholders within a month.

Employee unions have expressed unhappiness over the 15% increase in the salary. B. Jayadevaraje Urs, an office-bearer in the Joint Action Committee, said: “We are not happy with the revision order. After meetings with the management of the corporations, we hoped the State government would be more considerate about our demands. We also expected that the Chief Minister would call for a meeting with the office-bearers of unions, but that did not happen. On Saturday, office-bearers will meet again and decide on a future course of action. Our stance on going on strike from March 21 has not changed.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Sriramulu said that the 15% salary hike is the highest ever in the last 27 years. The pay revision for RTC employees happens every four years.