Retired Employees Protest Against TSRTC, Demand Monthly Pension and Clearance of Dues

Hundreds of retired employees of Tamil Nadu State Road Transport Corporation protested outside the transport corporation office in various parts of the state on November 21. Demanding their monthly pensions on time and the clearance of various dues, the workers gathered under the banner of Tamil Nadu State and Transport Corporation Retired Employees Welfare Association which is affiliated with Centre of Indian Trade Unions.

The protest was followed by several rounds of negotiations and a two-day strike which was held by the workers in May 2017. In Chennai, the workers gathered outside the Metropolitan Transport Corporation headquarters and blocked the main road Pallavan salai for 45 minutes, even amidst heavy police presence. Other than Chennai, the demonstrations took place in Villupuram, Salem, Coimbatore, Madurai, Kumbakonam, Tirunelveli, Nager coil and Thiruchy.

Citing the losses as the reason for dues to workers and retirees, the corporation has been exploiting thousands of its workers. The corporations have also used up crores of rupees belonging to workers including their PF deductions, money due for earned leave, and workers’ contributions for their credit/welfare society.

According to the unions’ estimate, there are around 66,000 pensioners throughout the state. A total amount of Rs 1,140.65 crores were the pending dues as recorded on June 30, 2017. Around 7,328 retirees are still waiting for their provident fund which sums Rs 333.12 crores. 2,573 workers are entitled to the contributory pension of total Rs.37.17 crores which is still in pending. Gratuity for 7,242 retirees sum Rs.233.21 crores is also in pending. Again Rs 336.05 crores as leave cash for 25,486 workers and Rs 201.10 crores as commuted pensions for 12,646 workers are also in pending.

Like any other employee of the government, they should also receive their pensions on a specific date without fail, said many of the workers said during the protest. Other than this the workers who retire are almost never given their dues on their date of retirement. In some cases, they are given post-dated cheques, while in other cases, they are asked to keep coming to the office to collect part of their dues.

One worker, Ravichandran who was working as a conductor in Kumbakonam from 1989 and later transferred to MTC Chennai, retired in October and was drawing a salary of around R .35,000 as a special grade conductor. “I have received two post-dated cheques, one for PF dated January 2, 2018, and the other for gratuity dated April 2, 2018. The department is not even telling me how much pension I can expect, though I am expecting that it will be around Rs 21,000. I have taken many loans hoping that I could pay it back with this settlement, but I will have to continue to pay interest until the cheques clear” he said.

Many workers said that they are in similar situations of debt as they had to borrow money for marriage and education of their children.

While the General Secretary of the association, Karzan, said that even though the government had made promises to pay the dues of workers after the two-day strike in May in this year, nothing has been done for the benefit of the retired workers.