Wage talks fail, transport staff threaten strike
CITU state president A Soundararajan, who participated in a meeting presided by Transport minister SS Sivasankar, said the trade unions refused to sign the agreement as the government assured pending arrears only from September 2024.
Centre of Indian Trade Union (CITU) State president A Soundararajan
CHENNAI: Transport employees' trade unions warn of a strike as the third round of the 15th wage revision talks held on Thursday ended in a limbo as the government refused to agree to several of their demands.
CITU state president A Soundararajan, who participated in a meeting presided by Transport minister SS Sivasankar, said the trade unions refused to sign the agreement as the government assured pending arrears only from September 2024. "We cannot agree to forego arrears for 12 months. Also, we demand the department to provide retirement benefits when the employees retire. We have demanded disbursement dearness allowance. But no amiable response was given by the minister," he said.
He added that employees, who retired 22 months ago, have yet to receive their benefits.
Earlier, during the lunch break, members of a few unions staged protests alleging there was no headway in the talks.
Meanwhile, the government has agreed to provide a hike of 6 per cent. But, Kamalakannan of the Anna Trade Union said that his union refused to agree to a 6 per cent hike.
"Permissions to speak on retirement benefits were denied in the meeting. Moreover, demands that incur no expenditure to the department were also denied. The talks were conducted just for the namesake," he alleged.
