RTC staff demands payment of night out allowance

Vijayawada : AP State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) recognised union The Employees Union has demanded the government to pay night out allowance to the drivers, conductors and other staff as usual from September onwards and warned that employees would launch agitation from September if the government failed to respond to its demand.

Employees Union (EU) president P Damodara Rao and general secretary G Narasaiah in a press release on Wednesday said the RTC management used to pay the night halt allowance to the drivers, conductors, checking staff and others if they spend night outside the headquarters on duty.

The two leaders said the drivers and conductors get Rs 300 night halt allowance if they spend 12 hours outside headquarters and Rs150 if they spend from 6-12 hours outside the headquarters. The EU leaders said around 20,000 APSRTC drivers and conductors will suffer loss if the government stops payment of night halt allowance. They alleged that treasury department staff is creating hurdles for the payment of allowance and even stopped payment in August.

The union leaders warned the APSRTC staff (public transport department) would launch agitation from September 1 and stage protests at 129 depots and four workshops in the state demanding continuation of night out allowance.

They said the treasury department had stopped payments of allowances since the implementation of PRC from 2022 to the staff of 60 units. Now the orders were issued to stop payment of night halt allowance to the staff of all 120 units in the state.

They said they had submitted representations to the senior officers of the APSRTC to pay night halt allowance and clear the arrears but there is no response yet. They requested transport minister Mandipalli Ram Prasad Reddy to take initiative and resolve the issue.