KSRTC employees on strike from today; bus services disrupted in Kerala

The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) bus services have been disrupted across the State. Bus operations in Kerala have been halted since Thursday (4 November) midnight and plenty of people were stranded at various bus depots of Kerala in the morning today, 5 November. The Kerala State Road Transport Employees Association (KSRTEA) and Kerala State Transport Employees Sangh (KSTES) have called in for a 24-hour strike starting today. The union affiliated to All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) and the INTUC affiliated Transport Democratic Federation (TDF) have also called in for a 48-hour strike. Hence, services are expected to be halted tomorrow as well. The strike comes as a move after talks of the employee union with the government could not find a solution. The union had a meeting regarding pay revision with Transport Minister Antony Raju and officials of KSRTC this week. According to the union, their pay has not been revised since the past nine years, even though KSTRC has over 35,000 employees. The Chief Minister had apparently promised a revision this year and the changes should have been made by June, but nothing has been implemented till now. The halted bus services will mostly affect the southern regions of Kerala as 5,000 KSRTC buses are on strike. The southern region of Kerala is mostly dependent on state-run transport and the KSRTC buses cover nearly 16 kilometers every day. Transport Minister Anthony Raju has said that it asked the union for some time as the implementation of pay revision would cost an additional Rs 30 crore. He added that the state wants to increase the pay and is sincerely committed to it. On 4 November, the State Government had announced dies-non for KSRTC employees. This was done in order to prevent the strike but the union still decided to carry on with it. A dies-non means that the salary of those employees who go on strike will be deducted. The employee union has said that the Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan had assured the union five months ago about this issue saying that it will be acted upon. However, since things have not changed yet, the union had no option left but to go on a strike. Keywords: Kerala State Road Transport Corporation, KSRTC strike, KSRTC employees, All India Trade Union Congress, Transport Democratic Federation