A day after the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) decided to roll out a new ‘revenue target linked scheme’ to pay the salary of employees before every fifth of the month, the employees’ unions cutting across party affiliations raised a banner of revolt against the move. The proposal is to pay employee salaries in proportion to the monthly target.
In the meeting convened by the corporation management, the KSRTC Employees’ Association (CITU) made it clear it would not support the move.
The union had earlier supported fixing monthly revenue target for the corporation as part of enhancing the revenue and efficiency of the public utility. But the move to link the target scheme with salary will hurt employees. There is also a deliberate attempt to discredit and depict the corporation in poor light for some time now, it alleged.
The All India Trade Union Congress State working committee meeting held here on Wednesday termed the new move barbaric and anti-employee. The wage of the employees is not a charity by someone but their right. The public utility has netted a fare collection of ₹222 crore in January alone. However, the corporation was still dragging its feet on paying the salary of staff for which only a sum of ₹80 crore was required, the meeting noted.
In a statement, Drivers Union president V.S. Sivakumar said that incentives could be fixed based on the revenue collected, but the move to link the salary with the target scheme was unscientific and against the labour laws.
Transport Democratic Federation representatives also informed the management in the meeting that any move to enforce the scheme would invite the wrath of employees and affect the normal functioning of the corporation.
Meanwhile, the corporation management stuck to its stance that the new scheme would be rolled out from April 1 and employees would be given salaries in proportion to the target they realised before every fifth of the month. The remaining salary would be given to them as and when the State government provides financial aid to the corporation.
