Date:14/04/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/14/stories/2008041454420600.htm

Andhra Pradesh

RTC union leaders seek bonus

National Mazdoor Union office-bearers meet YSR
Chief Minister to direct officials to have a dialogue

HYDERABAD: The National Mazdoor Union (NMU) has urged Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy to direct the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation management to pay bonus to employees in tune with its profits.

M. Nageswara Rao, honorary president, and Syed Mehmood, general secretary of the union, called on Dr. Reddy here on Sunday and said, for the first time in a decade, RTC was on the road to recovery, registering Rs.150-crore profit in 2007-08.

The leaders requested the Chief Minister to consider the employees’ wish, saying it would go a long way in motivating them to strive further. Dr. Reddy told the leaders that he would look into the proposal.

Dr. Reddy said he would direct officials to have a dialogue.

Mr. Rao said they had also urged Dr. Reddy to ask the Road Transport Authority to make a distinction between lorry drivers and those who drove buses in the corporation. Presently, drivers involved in accidents had cases registered against them under Sections 337, 338 and 304-A and their licences suspended for six months. The union leaders said, unlike lorry drivers, those in the corporation faced departmental enquiries and the responsibility was fixed. In such a scenario, they said, drivers involved in accidents for no fault of theirs could have their licences returned to them. The drivers could be permitted to resume duty soon after the departmental enquiry.

The Chief Minister is understood to have asked them to first discuss the issue with the management, after which he would issue orders as deemed fit.