BENGALURU: Finally it took just four hours of talks for the BMTC and KSRTC employees to call off their three- day strike and accept a 12.5 per cent hike in salary offered by the government in response to their demand for a 35 per cent raise.
The decision was taken Wednesday evening after a meeting of the unions with government representatives, the first since the one on Monday that failed to break the impasse.
It all began with state transport minister, Ramalinga Reddy addressing a press conference at the KSRTC head office in Shanthinagar at around 10.30 am and inviting the union leaders for talks even as buses stayed off the roads for the third successive day, inconveniencing people around the state.
Accepting the invitation, the union leaders trooped in at around 12.30 pm and the talks continued for an hour. At around 1.45 pm, Mr. Reddy left to meet Chief Minister S Siddaramaiah to get his approval for a 12.5 per cent hike in salary and in a few hours the deal was sealed and the strike called off.
According to sources, the labour leaders first held out for an 18 per cent rise in salary, but Mr. Reddy was able to persuade them to accept a lesser raise pointing to the poor financial condition of the transport corporations.
Considering how quickly the issue was resolved, those involved in the negotiations felt it could have been thrashed out sooner had both parties come forward for talks.
