The Kerala government has sanctioned ₹100 crore to the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) to disburse the pending salary of its employees for the month of July and August.
The allocation was made with the rider that the single-duty system has to be implemented in the public utility as per the decision taken at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday which decided to pay the pending salaries before Onam. As many as 25,628 employees were given the pending salary by Tuesday night.
Soon after the fund was sanctioned, Biju Prabhakar, Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of the KSRTC, convened a meeting of cluster-level officers in Thiruvananthapuram in order to implement the single-duty system in a phased manner from October 1. For some time, the corporation has been exploring ways to implement the 12-hour single duty system against the earlier 8-hour duty system to effectively utilise its resources. The trade unions have been vehemently opposing the move.
A good number of schedules of the KSRTC will have to be revamped as part of switching to the new system. As per the system, the crew will have to work for only eight hours, but their shift will be 12 hours, including 30 minutes rest after driving continuously for five hours.
