Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Transport Minister Antony Raju on Friday rejected report of the a planned lay off of 4,000 surplus employees by the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC). The minister said no such recommendation have been made by the Chairman & Managing Director of KSRTC to the government yet.
Even if such a recommendation comes, the government will not jump into action, instead will review all options including lay-offs.
KSRTC CMD Biju Prabhakar, IAS, told the labour union leaders at a meeting recently that the Corporation will convey its plan to lay off 4,000 surplus employees to the Government soon. Further action depends on the response of the State Government, he said.
The plan came as a desperate bid to cut corners owing to financial crunch.
As per the plan, the layoff will be until the public transporter regains a semblance of fiscal health.
The KSRTC management had earlier identified 4,000 surplus staff in its mechanical and conductor wings.
The Director Board wants them to be benched as the fiscal condition worsened, especially in the wake of the lockdowns and poor patronisation by the public in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Even otherwise the Corporation has always been in the throes of financial crisis, resulting in frequent delays in disbursing pensions and salaries. Often the Government intervened and advanced loans to tide over recurring fund crunch.
The employees who will be laid off will be given a small sum as solatium.
Predictably, the labour unions are opposing the layoff move. The three recognised trade unions are the Kerala State Transport Employees Association (affiliated to the CITU), the Transport Democratic Federation (of the INTUC) and the Kerala State Transport Employees Sangh (BMS).
