Himadyuthi V Deshpande
Sources in the transport sector said that there could be a transport strike on 21 March 2023.
Meanwhile, a federation of unions of employees of four government transport unions — Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), and North Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKRTC) — affiliated to AITUC, called for an indefinite strike and served notices on the government and MDs of the corporations.
The entire state was expecting a disruption in public transport services on that
day.
However, the strike was called off after the union leaders met KSRTC’s managing director and
were promised to fulfill their demands including pay revision and allowance. And yet, there is no end to the misery of the transport workers. As many as tens of thousands of people have been subjected to disciplinary actions such as transfers, suspensions, and dismissals. Minimum wage, overtime payment, issuance of charge sheets without proper inquiry, etc., are some of the problems prevalent for employees. One of them is the problem of Form 4.
Form 4, under Motor Transport Workers’ Act, defines the service conditions of the drivers and
conductors while they are on their duty for public service. It specifies the route schedule,
including the origin, destination, timings, duration, route, and length of the journey. Form 4 is
prepared by the higher authorities, Chief Traffic Manager (CTM) in the case of BMTC, based on the time that it takes for a journey to complete.
But, there is a catch. The real timing of a trip is not just the steering time. “It is never possible to complete a trip according to the timings given in form 4”, say the drivers and conductors of
BMTC. However, the workers were hesitant to speak about this inside the depot premises.
Yet, some of them, although preferred to stay anonymous, spoke about the problems they face due to Form 4. “The problem is, if the steering hours are increased, they will have to pay us for working overtime (OT). According to the law, we are supposed to work only for eight hours. If the work exceeds these eight hours, then we are supposed to get OT. So, to avoid giving us OT, they do not assign enough hours for a trip. If it practically takes two hours to go from point A to point B, on paper they assign one hour and forty-five minutes instead”, said one of the BMTC conductors.
“We are just pressured to complete the trips, even though it is practically impossible to adhere
to the given schedule. Even if it gets late, we are bound to complete the trip. But we don’t get
OT. There is a lot of harassment that we have to face due to form 4”, said a BMTC driver.
“We don’t even get time to have lunch. We sneak in time in between the steering hours
somehow to eat”, he said. Rajanikanth, Joint Secretary, KSRTC - Staff and Workers’ Federation and General Secretary, Staff and Workers’ Union - Volvo Division, says that unions are not consulted for any decision that the management takes. Decisions are taken unilaterally, and industrial relations are not preserved.
“Workers are issued charge sheets for even the smallest things; things which are impossible to deliver. Buses have speed governors, so they can’t even drive fast. They monitor the in and out timings at every station. So drivers and conductors live under pressure and fear of penalty, inquiry, and even charge sheets. This work environment makes the workers panic”, he says.
The demands of these unions are simple. One, a transport worker’s duty hours should start
once he/she enters the depot to take the bus out, even if it takes time to reach the source bus
stop. The time that it takes to clean and check the conditions of the vehicle before leaving for
the trip should also be included in the eight hours’ duty, and not just the steering time.
Two, when new routes come up, the officers along with elected union representatives should
travel in the bus, in real-time situations, and calculate the timings in live conditions. Not just
calculate the steering time, but also consider the traffic and crowd conditions during different
times.
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