MSRTC workers end strike for Ganesh festival; govt approves wage hike

The two-day strike by Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) employees was called off late on Wednesday night after the government promised a salary hike, union leaders said, in a relief to passengers planning to travel during the upcoming Ganesh festival.

An action committee of unions representing employees of the state-owned company announced an end to the strike after meeting Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. Shinde agreed to increase the basic salary of MSRTC employees by Rs 6,500 per month, fulfilling their main demand.

The hike will come into effect retrospectively from April 2020, a press release from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said. “We are suspending our agitation as the Chief Minister has promised a salary hike to MSRTC employees,” Sandeep Shinde, a leader of the Maharashtra ST Kamgar Sanghtana, told PTI after the meeting with Shinde.

Shirang Barge, another union leader, said during the meeting, which took place at Sahyadri Guest House in south Mumbai, that the chief minister, who is also the chairman of MSRTC, had agreed to a salary hike of Rs 6,500 for employees. Speaking to the media after the meeting, state Industries Minister Uday Samant said that employee unions were demanding a hike of Rs 7,000 in basic salary.

Besides, the government has agreed to other demands of the unions such as providing clean toilets for women workers and concreting bus depots, Samant informed. A large number of employees of MSRTC, which has a workforce of nearly 90,000, went on strike after Monday midnight in support of their various demands, including salary hike and parity with government employees.

The end of the strike came as a major relief to people who had planned to travel from the city to their native places during the ten-day Ganesh festival, which begins on September 7.