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| SRTC men ready to meet Omar midway, not impressed on argument against pay hike | | |
EARLY TIMES REPORT
Jammu, Nov 10: A day after Chief Minister Omar extended an olive branch to the employees of terminally sick State Road Transport Corporation assuring them release of salaries and inviting for dialogue, the agitating employees today called for fresh round of talks to resolve the issue.
On the eve of re-opening of civil secretariat here on Monday, the Chief Minister had given his mind to release pending salaries of SRTC employees but completely ruled out a hike on pattern of sixth pay commission recommendations. The Chief Minister had, however, said, “we (govt and SRTC employees) need to meet somewhere in the middle to resolve the issue”. What exactly Omar meant from meeting in the middle acceding to some demands of the SRTC employees and making them to agree on dropping others.
Responding to Chief Minister’s suggestion of meeting midway, the SRTC employees union has called for a fresh round of dialogue. Leaders of the SRTC workers union today expressed their desire to start fresh round of dialogue with the state government.
However, at the same time the SRTC employees union reacted sharply to the statement made by the chief minister that the benefits of the Sixth pay commission recommendation would not be extended to the employees of the Corporation as they were not earning any profits.
Interacting with media persons here today the Chairman of the STRC workers union Shakeel Ahmed Kuchay said that the chief minister had wrongly stated that benefits of the 6th pay commission could not be extended to the loss making units.
Clarifying his stand Kuchay further stated that no road transport corporation across India is making profits yet they are covered under sixth pay commission then why not JKSRTC as well.
He reminded the chief minister that the SRTC is not a PSU nor it is governed by Industries Act so announcements made by the chief minister were more of political in nature than anything else.
Kuchay said if the SRTC employees wanted to negotiate on their salaries they would not have extended the strike beyond EID or Diwali celebrations." We are not fighting for our salaries, he said and added we are fighting for our rights and would continue to do so in the form of peaceful agitation till these demands were met".
The Chief Minister had said on Monday: “I am ready to release the pending salaries of employees of SRTC. As for the Sixth Pay Commission, they (employees) can only get benefits if the Corporation is made profit earning.”
“How can we give them the Sixth Pay Commission benefits, when corporation is a loss-registering one,” Omar had said.
Chairman of SRTC Workers’ Association, Shakeel Ahmad Kuchay, said the association would accept the offer only if it is given on the pattern awarded to employees of the All India Transport Federation.
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