Kerala road transport staff to work on 12-hr shifts from Oct 1

The non-payment of their salaries for the last two months had driven the KSRTC employees, numbering about 25,000, to the wall ahead of the Onam festival to be celebrated on September 8

Amid severe financial crisis gripping the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), the CPI(M)-led LDF government has decided to introduce 12-hour duty a day for the employees of the KSRTC, the state’s largest public sector company, from 1 October.

The CPI(M)-affiliated CITU, which has been opposing the state government’s bid to introduce the 12-hour duty system, for a six-day work week, in place of the existing 8-hour work a day in the KSRTC, but it was forced, along with other trade unions, to agree to the proposal as the government made its implementation a condition for paying the employees’ outstanding salaries.

The non-payment of their salaries for the last two months had driven the KSRTC employees, numbering about 25,000, to the wall ahead of the Onam festival to be celebrated on September 8.

A day after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan chaired a meeting of the KSRTC management and trade union leaders in order to resolve the salary crisis, the government on Tuesday issued an order for release of Rs 100 crore towards the PSU’s salary bill with the rest to be borne by the company. The order states that the government is releasing funds for the KSRTC employees’ salaries on the condition that a 12-hour single duty system would be implemented for the crew of the state bus fleet.

By introducing the new work regime, the Left government wants to press 1,300 buses, which have reportedly been idling in depots for want of crew, into service. The bus crew on 12-hour duty would be given over-time allowance for the extra four hours they are put on work. This would, the government believes, help the loss-making KSRTC, make more revenue by using the existing staff. At present, the KSRTC is able to operate only 3,750 buses daily on an average.