Chennai: A day after confedaration of major transport workers unions, mostly affiliated to the opposition DMK and Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) threatened to go on a strike from June 19 if the government fails to meet their demands, representatives from Anna trade union affiliated with AIADMK on Wednesday met transport minister, M.R. Vijayabhaskar and put forth few demands.
According to the official press statement, their three major demands include clearance of pending dues, disposal of earned leave money and retirement funds.
On Tuesday, opposition unions said that the retirement benefits of nearly Rs 1,600 crore have not been cleared yet and the provident funds and LIC money to be paid to the to the concerned organisations is due, despite of the amount being deducted from employees salaries, every month.
A strike was earlier called on for eight days in January after the negotiations by the staff unions with State transport department demanding wage revision among other things, failed. The striking employees of State transport have been insisting for a pay scale revision to Rs. 30,000. However, the authorities have agreed in principle to pay only Rs 24,400, which the employees felt was a great injustice for the workers who deal with severe traffic and stress on a daily basis. The dues to be paid to the transport employees including retirement and provident fund dues stood at Rs 7,543 crore.
