Roadways staff press for regular jobs, salary hike

Ludhiana, July 18

A three-day strike being observed by the Punbus Contract Workers’ Union of Punjab Roadways ended on Wednesday. On the last day of the strike, the union organised a gate rally at the Ludhiana bus stand. The protesting workers raised slogans against the state government for failing to fulfil their demands.

While addressing the protesters, union leader Satnam Singh said the state government had been unnecessarily causing a delay in fulfilling their long-pending demands. “We have been raising these demands for a long time but the state government has done nothing in this regard. During the past months, we held several meetings with senior officials of the Transport Department but we got nothing except assurances,” he said.

There are more than 1,800 buses of the Punbus and a majority of these remained off roads during the strike.

The main demands of the protesting workers include regularising the services of contractual workers, recruiting mechanics in Punjab Roadways workshops, hike in salary and implementation of equal work, equal pay recommendations of the Supreme Court. It is for the second time this month that Punjab Roadways staff went on a strike. Earlier, the employees had observed a strike during the first week of July. — TNS