Starting today, around 2,700 out of 3,000 government buses operated by Punjab Roadways, PRTC, and PUNBUS will remain off the roads till January 8. This comes as the Punjab Roadways PUNBUS/PRTC Contract Workers Union has announced a three-day strike. The union says that about 90% of the workers at PUNBUS and PRTC are under contract, and they want their jobs to be done regularly.
This strike is expected to cause great hardship to passengers, who will have to rely on private buses at this time. The protesters alleged that the government was ignoring their demands that this should be done.
According to Resham Singh Gill, president of PUNBUS and PRTC Contract Workers Union, about 2,700 vehicles will be affected by the strike. He emphasized that the neighboring states like Haryana and Himachal Pradesh are controlling the workers after two years, while Punjab has failed to do so.
Union leaders also pointed out that despite providing uninterrupted services during violence, floods, elections and political rallies, their demands are ignored.
No government buses will operate in Punjab during the strike. The Secretary of State, Shamsher Singh Dhillon, said that repeated submissions of letters sought by the government had yielded no results.
The union has admitted that the strike will disrupt the community but remains adamant that there is no other way to press their demands. These demands include confirmation of contract workers, implementation of the “equal work, equal pay” formula as ordered by the Supreme Court, and wage increases. They are also demanding financial benefits under welfare schemes, group insurance, ESC, and EPFO, which they say has been denied so far.
The union went on to say that the families of the deceased workers are not getting their due benefits. It highlighted the issue of illegal salary deduction and said that these practices should be stopped.
Other key demands include the abolition of the kilometer private bus system, increasing the number of PUNBUS and PRTC buses to 10,000, curbing traffic jams at bus terminals and government gates, reimbursing fired workers, eliminating blacklists, and ensuring that there is no unfair dismissal.
Union members said these issues were raised with the Chief Minister of Punjab, Bhagwant Singh Mann, in a meeting held in July last year, where he promised a decision within a month. However, no action has been taken that made the union go on strike.
The union also criticized the government for providing free bus services to women without giving financial subsidies to PRTC and PUNBUS. This, they say, has led to the lack of spare parts and delays in salaries. The limited number of buses in operation has resulted in overcrowding, resulting in major accidents.
At that time, about 10% of the government buses in the state were operated by regular employees of PUNBUS and PRTC.
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