Contract drivers: Will be forced to strike, warns CITU

CHENNAI: The workers affiliated to the Tamil Nadu State Transport Employees Federation would be forced to go on a strike if the State Transport Corporation went ahead with the proposal to appoint drivers on contract and privatise the utility, said K Arumugha Nainar, the general secretary of the CITU-affiliated organisation.

Addressing a conference on Monday opposing the privatisation and appointment of contract workers in State Transport Undertakings, he said the union gave strike notice to the corporation on April 18 opposing the move.

Charging the State government of trying to privatise the transport corporation indirectly with attempts to operate private buses on contract basis, he said, “After strong opposition from us and other trade unions, the government said it would not do such things. We are holding conferences across the State demanding the government to drop all the plans to privatise the corporation directly or indirectly, fill 15,000 vacancies, implement old pension scheme and hike dearness allowance for pensioners,” he said.

Even after the strike notice was given, the State Express Transport Corporation appointed 250 contract drivers. Subsequently, during the talks held by the Labour Commissioner, the corporation said it would not appoint any more contract workers, he said, noting the incident where a bus driven by a contract driver met with an accident.

He also rejected the reasons cited by Transport Minister SS Sivasankar for the delay in recruitment to fill vacancies. “The delay is unacceptable, as the DMK government completed two years in office,” he said.