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Covid lockdown impact: Andhra RTC dumps 7,600 outsourced workers
The state transport union has questioned the decision to use regular employees in place of contracted workers
The continued nationwide lockdown to contain Covid-19 pandemic has now cast its shadow on the outsourced employees of Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC).
On Friday, the corporation put a question mark on 7,600 outsourced workers of the APSRTC with an instruction to all bus depot managers not to take them into work, employees’ union leaders said.
“We may use permanent employees for all duties due to Covid situation and related financial crisis. Only after the full utilisation of permanent employees, we may call any outsourcing/contract personnel for duties,” a WhatsApp message from APSRTC managing director Madireddy Pratap to the depot managers on Friday said.
According to transport corporation employees’ union general secretary P Damodar Rao, the outsourced employees mostly work as mechanics in garages, cleaners, sweepers, typists, data entry operators, peons and helpers in RTC hospitals. “Their salary bill is around Rs 9 crore a month. The management is sacking them to save this money,” Rao told Hindustan Times.
While Pratap could not be reached for a comment, an internal office memo issued by him to vigilance and security officers of the RTC regional depots on May 13 revealed that since the corporation was planning to operate all buses without conductors hereafter, it would result in surplus conductors and they could be redeployed in place of outsourced employees whose services would be withdrawn.
Similarly, there are outsourced drivers in the RTC, who were running some buses and light vehicles, apart from doing parking duties. These outsourced drivers would also be withdrawn and in their places, surplus regular drivers could be deployed, the office memo said.
“This is ridiculous. Regular employees cannot replace these outsourced or contracted employees. How can a conductor or a driver do the job of a sweeper or a peon?” the union general secretary asked.
According to Rao, APSRTC has close to 52,000 regular employees and 7,800 regular vacancies. “If the RTC management thinks there are excess conductors and drivers, they could be utilised in the existing vacancies,” he said.
The sacked outsourced employees have not got their salaries for the month of April since the busses didn’t operate in April, the union leader said.
