Leftists often raise their voices in the name of the welfare of poor workers, but the Communist government in Kerala has set a new benchmark for exploiting the workers as it extended the duty shift of the state transport workers from 8 hours to 12 hours. The Left government in Kerala forced the employees to accept the increased work hours in exchange of paying their unpaid salaries. It may be noted that the transport workers in Kerala are protesting for months over unpaid salaries.
The Communist government said that if workers don’t accept the 12 hour work day, their unpaid salaries will not be paid. As a result, the worker unions were forced to agree to the condition.
Around 25,000 employees of the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) had been agitating for the past few months due to non-payment of salaries. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan convened a meeting of KSRTC management and trade union leaders on Tuesday (September 5, 2022) to resolve the wage crisis caused by this agitation. After this meeting, the government ordered the release of the budget of 100 crores earmarked for the transport authority. Further, it also said that the remaining funds will be managed by KSRTC.
However, the government has put a condition for paying salaries in this order. The order said that the government is releasing this fund on the condition that the employees of state transport will have to do a single duty of 12 hours per day. Labour unions, including CPI(M) affiliated CITU, had been opposing the Kerala government’s move to increase the duty hours of Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) employees from 8 hours to 12 hours. But as the communist government made it a condition for paying outstanding salaries to the transport workers, the labour unions were forced to accept the condition, as otherwise the employees would not be paid their salaries.
Reportedly, the Left government of Kerala wants to increase the duty of employees from 8 hours to 12 hours to run 1300 additional buses. It is being said that these buses are lying parked in the depot due to lack of staff. But, now these buses can be operated with the same number of workers if they work for 4 more hours a day. In fact, the Left government believes that increasing the duty hours of the employees, it can increase the revenue of the State Transport Corporation.
It is notable that when the central government introduced the new labor laws, the Left strongly opposed it. The Communist Party was also involved in this protest. On behalf of the Communist Party, it was said that these laws will increase the exploitation of workers. It should be noted that there is no provision in the labour law to make any worker work for more than 8 hours in a day.
