Members of Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation Retired Employees’ Welfare Association staged a demonstration here on Saturday demanding immediate payment of increased Dearness Allowance (DA) to all employees.
This was part of the State-wide protest that took place at 21 zonal headquarters on Saturday. R. Devaraj, district general secretary of the association, said around 83,500 retired transport staff had not received the DA since November 2015. “The TNSTC officials say they are running short of funds to pay the DA to the retired staff,” he said.
But, during a discussion with the Labour Commissioner, he had instructed the TNSTC officials to pay DA with a 164% increase to retired transport staff from January. The Commissioner had said that the settlement of arrears for 62 months could be discussed later. “The transport department officials had also accepted these terms,” said Mr. Devaraj.
However, the transport department did not pay the increased DA to the employees from January, which led to the State-wide protest on Saturday, he said.
If the increased DA was not paid to the retired staff, a large-scale demonstration would be staged in front of Transport Minister M.R. Vijayabhaskar’s office in Karur. “As a final resort, a massive protest will be held in Chennai during the State government’s budget session,” he added.
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