MTC drivers, conductors seek overtime payment for traffic delays

CHENNAI: Even as the daily commuters of the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) are faced with delays in bus services due to traffic congestion, the MTC crew members are demanding the management pay overtime wages for one to two hours of additional working hours owing to traffic.

CITU-affiliated Government Transport Employees Union general secretary V Dayanandham said that his union members would hold a demonstration in front of all the MTC depots on Tuesday morning seeking overtime pay for working beyond the stipulated shift timings and conductors who are turning up for work should not be sent back without providing work due to drivers shortage.

In a letter to the MTC managing director, Dayanandham said that the corporation is operating over 3000 buses per day. “The number of scheduled bus services was reduced during the Covid-19 lockdown and due to less patronage. Now passenger patronage has increased. The traffic congestion has increased in the city. During the auspicious days, the traffic has become worse affecting the drivers and conductors badly, ” he said.

He said that the MTC had reduced the number of trips in a route to conserve diesel. “With the increase in patronage, MTC has restored the number of trips on the bus routes. So all the bus crew members' shift timings are getting delayed by one to two hours, ” he said, adding that bus drivers and conductors who are working overtime should be paid overtime wages.

Dayanandhan said on daily basis, hundreds of conductors are turning up for work and returning without work. “There was a huge shortage of drivers due to retirement and transfers to other transport corporations, ” he said, adding that the conductors returning home without work due to the non-availability of drivers should be given attendance by engaging them in regulation work and training classes.

A senior MTC official said that conductors were not sent back without work. “There may be some stray cases. We are operating all the buses post the new wage settlement agreement. So there is no question of conductors being sent back without work, ” the official added.