TSRTC employees' union raises pitch for pay revision

Hyderabad: The State-owned Telangana State Road Transport Corporation Employees' Union urged the State government to implement the pay revision for the employees of the public transport entity on par with the State government employees and other State-run public sectors. The pay revision for the TSRTC employees was last done in 2017.

According to RTC unions, drivers and conductors are equivalent to 'Class 3' of government employees, while the cleaners are 'Class 4'. Their pays, however, do not match with other workers at the same level in other government and State-owned public sectors.

Former board of director of APSRTC and trade union leader M Nageswara Rao said, "Salaries of the employees are less than that of a government employee on the same level. Even the routine pay revision, which should come every four years, was also delayed by the government. We demanded the government for the revision of pay scale and make it on par with the other government departments and State-run public sectors."

The last revision of pay scale was done on April 1, 2017 and with the lapse of six years the pay scale was not revised by the government. However, the revision was to be done in 2020 but still the long-awaited pay revision with fitment is yet to be implemented for the RTC employees.

"The basic pay for the RTC employees is Rs 10,880. While, the other State-run public sector like TS Electricity department employee's minimum pay scale is Rs 23,380. Why is the basic pay of RTC employees so low even when both the RTC employee and the State-run public sector employee come under the public sector and perform eight hours of duty every day. The TS electricity department received another revision of pay scale in April 2022, but there was no revision given for the TSRTC," lamented Nageswara."

For the RTC employees at the entry-level, the basic pay is Rs 10,880. Over and above, they have Dearness Allowances (DA), which will add about 5.3 per cent more to the salary every six months. However, for the last six terms, there were no DA given to the employees. "Since 2017, the cost of living has increased and we employees are still receiving the six-year-old pay scale without allowances. We urge the State government to revise the pay scale and increase it on par with the other sector employees and also demand the government to release the DA amount pending since the last six terms," urged employees.