MTC drivers, conductors seek overtime wages 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 1-2 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 MTC depots on Tuesday morning seeking overtime pay for working beyond the stipulated shift timings.

In a letter to the MTC managing director, Dayanandham said that MTC is operating over 3,000 buses per day, but it had reduced the number of trips in a route to conserve diesel. “With the increase in patronage, MTC has restored the trips on the bus routes. So all bus crew members’ shift timings are getting delayed by 1-2 hours,” he said. “Bus drivers and conductors working overtime should be paid overtime wages.”

Dayanandhan said that every day, hundreds of conductors are turning up for work but returning without work. “They should be engaged in regulation work and training classes,” he added.

However, a senior MTC official refuted Dayanandhan’s statement, and said: “They may have been a few stray cases. We’re operating all buses post the new-wage settlement agreement. So, there’s no question of conductors being sent back without work.”