Karnataka government calls transport staff strike as ‘illegal’

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government, on Friday, declared that the three-day-old strike by the state road transport corporation employees was ‘illegal’. The government slammed the door on negotiations or pay revision as per the 6th Pay Commission “in these times”.

“Is your strike justified when people are suffering due to the pandemic? Rejoin duty today”, said, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa.

The government called the strike as ‘illegal’ under the Industrial Disputes Act of 1947. This is a forerunner to the government acting strictly against the employees, including invoking the Essential Services Maintenance Act (Esma).

The CM has rejected negotiations with the employees. He affirmed that the state government has raised Rs 2,300 crore in transport employees’ salaries in the pandemic-hit 2020.

The CM added that presently, the government is not able to implement wages according to the 6th Pay Commission. He said, “When you know we won’t do it, why are you expecting it? It’s wrong. As transport employees, it is your duty to serve the people at this point of time. Listening to some unions and some people and going on strike is not right.”

Reports indicate that the employees had given the strike notice on March 18. At a hearing on April 5, the employees were asked not go ahead with the strike till the conciliation process was over. Despite this, the employees went for the strike. The report stated that BMTC, KSRTC, NEKRTC and NWKSRTC are described as ‘public utility services’ under the Indistrial Disputes Act and going on strike would be a violation of the act.

A senior labour officer said, “The government is ready for talks with the employees. If they fail to budge, then we will think of invoking Esma.” Laxman Sawadi, Deputy CM warned employees against preventing their colleagues to return to work.