Bengaluru: State transport minister Ramalinga Reddy has made it clear that there will not be any delay in the disbursement of salaries of the KSRTC or BMTC staff, nor will there be any adverse impact of the 12.5% hike in the salaries to the two corporations.
”There will not be any delay in disbursing the salaries just because the salary amount is revised. Staff will receive their salaries like in previous months,” Mr Reddy said.
Regarding the impact of 12.5% salary hike on the state-owned transport corporations, Mr Reddy stated that it was the same “as if we increased the salary by 10%. Now the salaries of the KSRTC and BMTC staff has become on par with the state government employees as well as the staff of Andhra and Telangana transport corporations. They are still less compared to Maharashtra,” he explained.
Mr Reddy said making profit was not the motto of state transport corporations. "Even if the roads are poor or if the route is loss-making due to various reasons, we cannot stop running buses. We are here to serve the people. So, we will work without looking at profit margins,” he explained.
No bailouts: Mr Reddy also made it clear that corporations will not seek any bailouts from the state government to ease the financial burden due to salary revision. "But what we expect is timely release of reimbursement amount spent by the corporations on various social welfare schemes launched by the state government. It is enough for us," he concluded.
No action against staff
Though both KSRTC and BMTC continued to issue notices against union leaders who led the three-day strike, V. Manjunath, Secretary, KSRTC and BMTC workers’ federation, has said the Transport Minister has agreed to stop this process.According to the BMTC and KSRTC staff, starting from Thursday, around 70 crew members were suspended for allegedly leading the strike. But corporations cited past instances of misbehavior, absenteeism and other charges for the action. Manjunath told Deccan Chronicle that on Friday union members spoke to Mr Reddy who assured all charges against union leaders will be withdrawn.
Wage bill up by Rs 24 cr 12.5% salary hike means KSRTC needs an additional Rs 14 crore, while BMTC needs an additional Rs 10 crore to foot wage bill
Transport minister Ramalinga Reddy no financial support will be sought from the state government to pay salaries.
Transport corporations are expecting government reimbursement for various social schemes, including bus passes for students.
