Transport employees enter strike as talks end in a deadlock
A tripartite talk was held in the labour department office in Chennai, on Monday.
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CHENNAI: Stalemate continues as talks between transport unions and the transport department ended in a deadlock on Monday.
While unions entered into strike as warned earlier, the government is hopeful that it can run buses using DMK affiliated unions. The transport unions have announced a strike from Tuesday across the state.
Transport employees trade unions have put forth six major demands including pay revision, filling of vacant bus driver and conductor posts, releasing pending dearness allowances of retired employees as well as employees in service.
The strike will affect the government's plan to operate around 20,000 buses across the state during Pongal holidays.
Transport employees trade unions have put forth six major demands including pay revision, filling of vacant bus driver and conductor posts, releasing pending dearness allowances (DA) of retired employees as well as employees in service.
A tripartite talk was held in the labour department office in Chennai, on Monday.
"The government refused to accept our demands immediately. They say that further talks can be resumed after the pongal festival. We are not satisfied with the outcome. We are requesting to release the dearness allowance at least, " A Soundararajan, CITU leader, told reporters after attending the meet.
The trade unions are urging the government to at least release DA for the current month and expressed willingness to continue talks after pongal as proposed by the government.
Meanwhile, transport minister SS Sivasankar said that the government has accepted two of the demands and will operate buses by deploying employees affiliated to LPF, a DMK-affiliated trade union.
On the other hand, protesting trade unions said that they are ready to call off the strike if the government accepts the demands before Monday night.
Meanwhile, managing directors of transport corporations have warned disciplinary action against the employees who instigated workers to participate in the strike and those workers absenting from work.
In a circular, MTC managing director directed the workers to turn up for work without fail on January 9 and also all the sanctioned leave, weekly off and duty rest on that day stand cancelled.