Retired Transport Employees’ Demands Accepted After Massive Demonstration in Chennai

Thousands of retired employees of the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) from across the state converged in Chennai to seek solution for their long pending demands on Tuesday. They tried to lay siege to the state secretariat after picketing the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) headquarters, the Pallavan Illam. This forced the principal secretary to government of the transport department to hold talks with the demonstrators.

The government agreed in writing to fulfil the majority of the demands of the demonstrating workers. The workers were led by the TNSTC Retired Employees Welfare Association (TNSTC- REWA).

MAJOR DEMANDS AGREED ON

There are about 80,000 pensioners in all the transport corporations in the state. The workers demanded that the pension should be paid on first of every month; the government agreed to pay it on 5th immediately and on the 1st of every month in due course. The workers demanded that the pension benefits should be provided as per the agreement made in the year 2001. The dearness allowance (DA) for the pensioners has not been revised for the past 46 months, leaving them far behind the employees of TNSTC. These demands would be fulfilled in the next 45 days as per the agreement. 

Many other demands including increase in medical allowance, implementation of medical insurance scheme and free travel passes for the retirees were also discussed positively in the talks.

PENSION BENEFITS NOT PAID

A retired employee while speaking to NewsClick said, “The workers of TNSTC have a long list of pending demands for a very long period of time. We are not treated on par with other employees in terms of working conditions as well as wages or pension. The pension benefits were not paid for years to the retirees and only after a case was file in the court, the government agreed to pay it in instalments. The need of the retired workers in terms of expense for education, marriage of children cannot be met if the benefits are paid in instalments.”

At present, the workers who retired from service between April and August have not received their pension benefits so far, leaving them stranded in a financial crisis.

FIX MINIMUM PENSION FOR ALL RETIREES

The workers are paid pension as per the number of years in service and based on the position they retire from. This leads to very low pension for certain category of workers, forcing them to take up other work to fulfil the financial needs. 

“Some of the retired staff members get very low pension, which is not enough to make an honest living. This forces them to take up work after retirement to manage their family, which puts more stress on them at old age. They work at an age which is meant to take rest. So, we have a very genuine demand of a minimum pension of Rs 7,850 for workers retiring from TNSTC,” added an office bearer of the association. 

IMPLEMENT MEDICAL INSURANCE

The workers are subject to much physical and mental stress during their service period, which leaves them physically ill and mentally stressed. But they are excluded from any medical insurance scheme, which takes a toll on their personal savings when medical treatment is required for them or their family members. The protesters have demanded an insurance scheme on par with the government and transport corporation employees. This demand was accepted during the talks. 

The struggle also called for the protection of public transport system, which is serving the state in rural remote villages. The state transport corporation has also won nine awards at the Association of the State Transport Undertakings’ annual event for the year 2017-18 in July, 2019. 

But in spite of the national recognition for performance, the corporation and the state government have failed to protect the basic rights of the retired workers by paying their pension and other benefits on time—leaving them almost empty handed at a ripe old age. 

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