Chennai: Bus services across Tamil Nadu will be hit on Friday, as the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corp. goes on an indefinite strike, demanding a revision in wages.
While the talks held by 45 trade union representatives with transport minister M.R. Vijyabaskar did not reach a consensus on Thursday, some buses went off the roads leaving passengers stranded.
Apart from the latest talks, the trade unions have earlier held 10 rounds of talks with the government and have demanded an increase of 2.57% hike.
M. Shanmugam of the opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), who backed the Labour Progressive Federation (LPF), said after the meeting, “While our plea was for a 2.57% wage hike, the government said it was not acceptable and insisted on a 2.44% hike."
Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) leader A. Soundarrajan said they were ready for talks and regretted that people will suffer.
However, Vijayabaskar said the proposed wage hike by the government this time “was unprecedented" and urged the employees to resume work.
“The new wage structure had the highest revision proposed with a minimum of Rs2,684 and a maximum of Rs11,361... hope the employees get back to work," the minister said.
The employees affiliated to the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)-backed union will not participate in the strike.
Tamil Nadu has over 22,000 buses with a workforce of about 143,000 employees. The employees have been fighting for over a year for wage revision and for clearance of arrears that amount to Rs7,543 crore, including retirement benefits and provident fund.
Earlier in May, when the transport employees went on a strike, the Madurai bench of Madras high court directed the employees to end the stir, following a petition to invoke the Essential Services Maintenance Act.
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