The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) management says that there is no alternative but to introduce 12-hour duty for bus crew, since over 1,300 buses are idling for want of drivers, even as most trade unions have vehemently opposed this and termed it as impractical.
“The sole alternative would be to wind up the RTC which has perennially been neck deep in loss, and the State government had to pump in over ₹6,000 crore during the past six years to help it stay afloat,” said a high-ranking official in the agency.
Reacting to Monday’s talks with trade unions on introducing 12-hour duty ending in a stalemate, he said the Motor Transport Workers Act has capped ‘hours of work’ of bus crew at eight hours per day and 48 hours per week – meaning the total time when a driver is steering a bus. Bus crew will have to work for only eight hours even if the 12-hour shift is introduced, while also getting 30 minutes rest after driving continuously for five hours. The Act further permits extension of working hours to up to 12 hours if needed. Thus, the main working hours will be 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. – to cater to peak-hour demand, with a four-hour paid break in between, he said.
“The situation was warranted since there were insufficient crew members available for evening duty under the existing system, what with most of them opting for double duty or 16 hours of work. This resulted in some of them turning up for work for just two days a week and eight days a month. The net result was that more personnel had to be recruited, taking the bus-employee ratio to as high as 1:8 – the highest in India. This in turn tremendously increased the salary and pension expenses of KSRTC.”
Unions’ stand
Taking a different view, C.K. Harikrishnan, working president of Kerala State Road Transport Employees Association (CITU), said his union would not have opposed the move if duty time was curtailed to eight hours, as was the case till 1992. “Most crew have got accustomed to doing double duty during the past three decades. The extending of duty time to 12 hours could result in inadequate number of buses operating from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., affecting commuters,” he said.
The management seems to be in a hurry to reduce the number of personnel, said R. Ayyappan, working president of Kerala State Transport Drivers Union. “It is not practicable and proper homework must be done. Both the management and workers will be at a loss if the 12-hour duty pattern is imposed, since it will throw the entire system into disarray,” he said.
