Kochi private buses to keep off road on Tuesday

KOCHI: Various private bus employees' organizations have called for a day-long strike on Tuesday in city limits to protest against the bus owners' reluctance to raise the wages of employees.
The strike was announced as the discussion convened the other day by Ernakulam additional district magistrate (ADM) B Ramachandran had failed to reach an agreement on wage hike.The employees had demanded a 20% hike in wage in the meeting, but the bus owners turned down the demand.
At present, drivers of city private buses are earning up to Rs 800 per day, while conductors and cleaners get Rs 650 and Rs 500 respectively.
In all, members of 10 organizations, including CITU, INTUC, AITUC, BMS and TUCI, will give their support to the strike, said K K Kaleshan, secretary of Private bus workers' coordination committee.
However, services to West Kochi and Edakochi will be unaffected. The most-affected areas would be Aluva, Chitoor, Cheranallor, Kakkanad, Kaloor, Pookattupadi, Poothotta, Tripunithura and Vytilla. At the same time, long distance services to places, including Guruvayoor, Kottayam, Piravom, Kothamangalam and Moovattupuzha, will not be affected.
Private bus owners' federation members said that they had agreed to increase the wage by Rs 300 per bus after talks with the employees' representatives. They offered the hike over the last salary figure fixed by the labour officer three years ago. But the employees demanded that the hike should be based on the existing wages, which was turned down by the owners.
Kochi: Various private bus employees' organizations have called for a day-long strike on Tuesday in city limits in protest against bus owners' reluctance in increasing wages of employees. The strike was announced, as the discussion convened the other day by the Ernakulam additional district magistrate (ADM) B Ramachandran failed to reach an agreement on wage hike. The employees demanded a 20-per-cent hike in wage in the meeting and the bus owners declined the demand.
At present, drivers of city private buses are earning up to Rs 800 per day, while conductors and cleaners get Rs 650 and Rs 500, respectively.
In all, members of 10 organisations including CITU, INTUC, AITUC, BMS and TUCI will cooperate with the strike, said K K Kaleshan, secretary of Private bus workers coordination committee.
However, services to West Kochi and Edakochi will be unaffected. The most-affected areas would be Aluva, Chitoor, Cheranallor, Kakkanad, Kaloor, Pookattupadi, Poothotta, Tripunithura and Vytilla. At the same time, long distance services to places including Guruvayoor, Kottayam, Piravom, Kothamangalam and Moovattupuzha will not be affected.
Private bus owners' federation members said that they had agreed to increase the wage by Rs 300 per bus after talks with the employees' representatives. They offered the hike over the last salary figure fixed by the Labour officer three years ago. But, employees demanded that the hike should be based on the existing wages, which was turned down by the owners.