“The transport department will implement the union’s wage matrix request”
CHENNAI: The sixth round of wage review talks between the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation and unions ended inconclusively on Wednesday, even though the transport department agreed in principle to the union’s main demand for a wage review. salaries based on the salary matrix.
After seven hours of negotiation with union representatives here, Transport Minister SS Sivasankar said that after the chief minister gave his consent for the implementation of wage matrix for salary review, the talks will continue. are held on this basis. “We have not yet reached an agreement on the period from which the salary matrix will be implemented and over how many years once it is renegotiated. Since the union’s demands could lead to a financial burden further, we need to get approval from the finance department, therefore the talks could not be concluded,” he said.
All the unions had demanded the implementation of the revision based on the salary matrix following the changes made by the previous AIADMK government to the salary scale which ignored seniority.
The minister said most of the demands submitted by the unions had been accepted. “We will hold another round of talks,” he said, adding that the issue of the 81-month allowance due to pensioners would be brought to Stalin’s attention.
DMK-affiliated LPF chairman M Shanmugham said the government had agreed to give a 5% raise based on the wage matrix. “Over the past 10 years, workers have lost their seniority because of sanctions imposed by management for participating in protests. The government agreed to take it back. ordinary bus drivers also agreed,” he said.
On the government’s request to increase the duration of the pay deal from three to four years, he said the unions had strongly opposed it and the minister had agreed to bring it to the attention of the chief minister.
Earlier, CITU president A Soundarajan said his union, which had given strike notice, wanted to resolve the issues through talks. “If we go on strike, it will create difficulties for the public,” he said.