KSRTC workers agreed to the longer duty hours after their salary was kept pending for two months by the LDF government
Thiruvananthapuram: The concession to 12-hour duty timings by employees of the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) reinforced a new reality in the state. As Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan consolidates his hold on the government and the party, plus adopts an unapologetic pro-investment and pro-management stand, including in the Assembly and party meetings, the hold of trade unions in the only Left-ruled state in the country is at its lowest.
KSRTC workers agreed to the longer duty hours after their salary was kept pending for two months by the LDF government. It released Rs 100 crore towards meeting the shortage in the salary bill of 25,000-odd transport workers only on the condition that they agreed to the new work conditions of 12 hours a day, six days a week, starting
October 1.
So far, the work limit was eight hours a day, a norm the Communists have always backed. Under Vijayan, the LDF government has gone about breaking the stranglehold of militant trade unions in the state’s PSUs. The win in KSRTC is significant as it is the largest PSU in Kerala, and because its dominant trade union is KSRTEA, affiliated to the CPI(M)’s CITU.
Over the years, KSRTEA has called the shots in the heavily loss-making KSRTC, largely on the strength of the backing of senior CPI(M) leaders. KSRTEA leaders had also openly protested against Transport Minister Antony Raju over the introduction of 12-hour days.
Sources said that at the meeting held on Monday to break the deadlock, Vijayan laid down the line, telling the belligerent trade unions to agree to longer duty hours if they wanted salary arrears. Not a single CITU leader or powerful KSRTEA protested then, or later.
Earlier this year, the Vijayan government forced into line the pro-CPI(M) KSEB Officers’ Association, which controls the loss-making Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB). When the officers staged agitation against some reforms proposed by the management, the government stood with the latter.
