Punbus workers up in arms for regular jobs

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 2

Members of the Punjab Roadways/Punbus Contractual Workers’ Union on Friday staged a protest at Shaheed Madan Lal Dhingra Interstate Bus Terminal and burnt an effigy of the state government for not accepting their long-pending demands. Their demands include job regularisation by scrapping the outsourcing system, implementation of the Employees Welfare Act, 2016, and equal salary for equal work.

Union general secretary Baljit Singh Gill said the government was giving them false assurances and promises. “The Congress government in the state assured to implement our demands by July 2. It had announced to hold a meeting in this regard on June 28. Neither meeting took place nor our demands were met,” he said. Other leaders said the government had been harassing them as it didn’t regularise them even after the passage of three years.

They said that about 1,395 persons, including, 645 drivers, 660 conductors and 90 mechanics, were hired for workshops after conducting tests in 2015.

They rued that they were being forced to fend for themselves on meagre monthly salaries as drivers were getting Rs 10,200 and conductors Rs 9,300. They said it was almost impossible to run kitchen on this budget.

He said regular employees, caught for ticketing fraud and petrol theft, were reinstated after some time. However, jobs of contractual employees were terminated for such offences.