Thiruvananthapuram: The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) on Monday slammed Kerala Transport Minister Antony Raju over the logjam over disbursal of salaries to KSRTC employees and his comment justifying the proposal to pay the salary in tranches.
“The minister is bearing the burden of the KSRTC CMD like in the Vikram-Betaal story,” said a CITU office-bearer referring to the popular Indian fable.
Raju had earlier remarked that lumpsum payment of the salary was unnecessary.
While CITU is politically affiliated to CPM, Anotny Raju belongs to Janadhipathya Kerala Congress, an LDF ally.
S Vinod, general secretary of the KSRTC Employees’ Association (CITU), said that though the union had supported the fixing of targets for enhanced revenue in depots, making this as the basis for paying salary would not be accepted.
He added that Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan failed to fulfil his promise of paying KSRTC employees their salaries by the 5th of every month.
The Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of the Kerala State Regional Transport Corporation (KSRTC) had issued an extraordinary order a few days ago stating that staff salaries would be paid in instalments.
The order further said those who don't want their salary to be paid in instalments should submit an application stating the same before February 25.
The trade unions had recently lashed out at the KSRTC management for its move to pay employee salaries in proportion to the monthly target. Trade unions including CITU and INTUC had termed this as violation of labour laws.