Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Wednesday asked the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) to pay all dues to its employees before Onam.
The court instructed the corporation to pay the arrears for the past two months at the earliest.
"The salary for July must be paid entirely to the employees before Onam. You can't leave them hungry on Onam. The KSRTC must pay the first instalment of the salary," the court said.
"We'll pay the entire dues for two months if the government grants us Rs 130 crore," the corporation told the court.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister KN Balagopal assured that the salary for the month of July would be credited to employee bank accounts by next week. The minister added that the government was also considering an allowance for the KSRTC employees.
The court order comes amidst the government's efforts to pacify the KSRTC employees after trade unions announced a strike on August 26 to mark their protest over the salary crisis.
Transport minister Antony Raju, labour minister V Sivankutty and finance minister K N Balagopal held talks with the trade unions on Wednesday.
The government has announced a bonus and festival allowance for government employees ahead of Onam. But neither KSRTC nor the finance department took action to distribute salary to staff of the public transport service even after 15 days.
Usually, the first instalment of the salary is given by the 5th of every month.
Over 24,000 employees are yet to be paid the July salary. Most of the employees said they are struggling to make ends meet.
In June, transport secretary and CMD of the KSRTC Biju Prabhakar protested openly and decided to resign from his position as the finance department was not ready to fund the corporation.
