Hyderabad: RTC workers ready to rejoin duty

Hyderabad: The issue of RTC strike has taken a new turn on Wednesday with the TSRTC workers' JAC announcing that they were ready to rejoin duty if the government does not put any pre-conditions like signing agreements that they will not be members of any union and desist them from union activities. This decision of JAC assumes significance since the Labour Commissioner would begin the process of conciliation soon.

The JAC wanted to push the ball into the court of the Government and inform the Labour Commissioner that keeping in view the problems being faced by employees and general public, they were ready to call off the 47-day old strike.

Talking to media after a meeting of the JAC, Chairman E Ashwathama Reddy said, "We hope the government and management will initiate favourable steps in this direction and saves the self-respect of the workers. We have confidence that we will get justice in Labour Court."

This decision has invited mixed reaction. JAC-1 leader K Hanumanthu alleged that the JAC had let down the employees after 47 days of strike. The sacrifices of the workers should not go waste at any cost.

This decision, he felt, would be a loss of face for RTC. The employees are not sure whether the government will respond positively to the JAC's decision or not. They have lost in terms of salaries and the families suffered, he said.

Another major issue is what if the government insists that the employees give a written undertaking that they will not participate in any future strikes. But the JAC maintains that when the conciliation proceedings begin, both the employees' unions and the corporation representatives would be there and that would form the basis of talks for both sides and the unions would see that the interests of the employees were not affected.