Hyderabad, November 29: In a major relief to employees of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC), chief minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao on Thursday said that the entire 48,000-odd workforce can re-join their duties on Friday.
The announcement came after a cabinet meeting, which was held to discuss the debt-ridden TSRTC’s fate and after the employees had gone on a 52-day strike, which ended on 25 November and after which they were not allowed to join back by the TSRCT management.
“We will take care of all the employees and you can all happily go and join back your duties in the first hour tomorrow. And please thank the temporary workers (who were hired by the TSRTC in wake of the strike). We will take a decision on the TSRTC after consultation with all stakeholders, and it won’t be done unilaterally," said Rao.
The TSRTC employees had gone on the strike starting on October 5 and were led by a handful of unions, which put forth 26 demands, with the primary one being to merge the TSRTC with the state government (it is an autonomous organization). However, Rao had outrightly rejected it, and had warned the employees that they would be considered ‘self-dismissed’ if they didn’t get back to work by November 5.
However, the employees did not heed his warning, and after the unions called-off the strike on 25 November, the TSRTC managing director Sunil Sharma said that the entire workforce would not be allowed to join back. That decision kept everyone on their toes until Thursday, when KCR finally decided to take them back.
The chief minister also said that employment will be provided to the family members of the employees who had died during duration of the 52-day protest.