UP: UPSRTC Protest Against Various Demands, Threaten Statewide Strike

Lucknow: The workers of Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC), bus drivers and conductors blocked the regional manager's office in Lucknow and handed over a 25-point memorandum to the GM Roadways, demanding immediate redressal of their long-pending demands. They also threatened a statewide strike and would block the operation of buses on September 27 if their demands were not fulfilled.

Workers protesting under the banner of Uttar Pradesh Roadways Karmchari Sangh shouted slogans and indicated that employees were not in the mood to relent on these issues.

The union leaders alleged "exploitation'' by the UPSRTC administration and said if their 25-point demands were not met, the union would call for a strike.

Among others, the demands include contractual drivers and bus conductors being given salaries on the same pay scale and regularising them after one year's service, stopping the operation of private vehicles and unauthorised buses plying on the national highway due to which the government is suffering a loss in revenue.

"The UP government should increase employees' salary by 14% and introduce uniformity in wages. The government should manage at least 4,000 government buses according to the region’s demand. The government should remove anti-employee conditions, reinstate dismissed employees and ensure that no employee loses their job," Rajneesh Mishra, media in-charge of Uttar Pradesh Roadways Karmchari Sangh, told NewsClick. 

He further said it is difficult to survive with such a low salary. 

"Whenever we hit the road, officials say our jobs will officially be declared permanent in another 1-2 months. But we are having a tough time surviving with a merger salary,” said Avdesh, a driver whose wife and 5-year-old son had to go back to their village in Basti due to a shortage of money.

Earlier, Roadways Karmchari Sanyukt Parishad had organised several protests with the same demands. 

Around 34,000 contractual drivers and conductors in the state fall under four categories in UPSRTC --- excellent, eminent, general category and special zone. Out of these, around 18,000 are conductors, and the rest 15,000 are drivers. 

According to the union leader, around 9,000 are permanent staff in UPSRTC, of which 3,000 are conductors and 6,000 are drivers. 

"After 2000, these contract workers have not regularised rather, a separate recruitment drive was held for permanent staff and recruited which is back-stabbing to the contractual workers," Girish Chandra Mishra, general secretary of Roadways Karmchari Sanyukt Parishad, told NewsClick. 

However, The transport minister (Independent Charge) Daya Shankar Singh, in response to a question asked by a member of the Legislative Assembly, informed that more than 1.10 lakh buses of the Transport Corporation are operating in the state. Of these, 81,070 are corporation buses, and 29,048 are contract buses. This means 26% of the buses are contracted, and 74% belong to roadways.

Some of the key demands are the regularisation of contract employees, salary parity with other departments, facilities like ESI and PF, the inclusion of workers in arbitration committees, an end to victimisation of Union office bearers and activists, connecting National Highways to rural roads, end to taxes on State Transport buses, and a representative of the country's largest labour organisation Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh should be placed on the Transport Corporation Board. Like other corporations, an important corporation like transport should be freed to maintain its dynamism.