Demanding regularisation of their jobs, the outsourced and contractual employees of state-owned Pepsu Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) and Punjab Roadways/Punbus went on a three-day strike from Monday.
The bus services across the state remained affected, causing inconvenience to commuters. As per reports, at least 40% of state-owned buses remained off road. The protesting employees held dharnas at bus stands and raised slogans against the state government. The protesters said they did not allow plying of buses in the state, except for a few operated by regular employees.
Meanwhile, the state transport department directed its officials posted at different depots to put their regular staff on the job so as to minimise impact of the strike.
Inderjit Singh, member of the outsourced and contractual employees’ action committee, said the government had promised to bring a policy for their regularisation in 2017, but nothing has been done to date.
“The employees are being exploited financially as they have no choice that to work on meagre salaries. Not only conductors and drivers, even contractual staff on administrative duties are observing complete pen-down strike,” he said.
Another activist Sehajpal Singh said most of the employees are working on contract for past 15 years but the government is not paying heed to their demands.
“We are also demanding a stringent check on the transport mafia, implementation of equal work, equal pay and to stop harassment of employees,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}“We are also demanding a stringent check on the transport mafia, implementation of equal work, equal pay and to stop harassment of employees,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}PRTC managing director Bhupinder Singh said they are yet to access the financial and services loss due to the strike.