Bengaluru: Pressing for fulfilment of demands, the Joint Action Committee of six Karnataka State Transport Corporation Employees’ Unions (KSRTC, NWKRTC, KKRTC and BMTC) has called for an indefinite transport strike from Aug. 5.

Addressing a press meet on behalf of the Committee here, KSRTC Staff and Workers Federation President H.V. Anantha Subbarao alleged that the State Government is not responding to the demands of the transport employees.

Maintaining that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has failed to keep his promise of convening a meeting of transport employees for discussing fulfilment of their demands, he said that the employees will stop bus services from 6 am on the morning of Aug.5, marking the launch of the indefinite stir.

The demands include preparation of a fresh pay-scale with 25 percent hike of the basic wages as on 2023; payment of backlog wages of 38 months along with a 15 percent hike in wages as per the 2020 order; payment of PF, Gratuity and leave encashment; a 5 percent general increase in all allowances; consideration of transport employees as Government servants; cashless medical treatment facility for all employees; introduction of new wages with retrospective effect from Jan.1, 2024; withdrawal of cases registered against transport employees during the 2020 and 2021 strike and deployment of the Transport Corporation drivers for EV buses by abolishing outsourcing of drivers, among others.

ESMA invoked: Meanwhile, Karnataka Labour Department has invoked Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA), prohibiting KSRTC employees from participating in any strike until Dec. 31, 2025. The notification bans all forms of agitation for six months from July 1, 2025.