Punjab: Roadways contractual staff to stop bus stands ops for 2 hrs on April 3

Bus stands across Punjab will remain closed for two hours from 10 am to 12 pm on April 3 as contractual workers from Punjab Roadways, Punbus and PRTC announced a statewide strike on Tuesday to press the state government to accept their ‘long-pending demands’ including job regularisation.

Additionally, the workers’ unions have threatened a complete strike from April 7 to 9, during which all state-run buses in Punjab will remain off the roads.

The announcement came after a meeting held in Jalandhar, where the unions expressed frustration over the government’s inaction, despite repeated assurances.

Resham Singh Gill, state president of the Punjab Roadways, Punbus, and PRTC Contractual Workers Union, said that the strike is in response to the Punjab government’s failure to fulfil promises made regarding the regularisation of the workers’ employment in the recent state budget.

“The recent state budget failed to address our concerns, prompting us to escalate our protest. The state budget did not address our concerns, which has led to this renewed strike action,” he said.

The strike is expected to impact all 18 depots of Punjab Roadways, nine depots of PRTC, and two depots of Punbus across the state. This marks the second statewide strike in just three months, as the union previously called for a shutdown from January 6 to 8, which was called off on January 7 following a meeting call from the chief minister’s office.

Besides the regularisation of over 7,000 contractual and outsourced employees, the workers are also seeking implementation of a 5% increase annually in their remuneration, reinstating suspended employees, stopping hiring employees through outsourcing, ending private transport mafia working and hiring private buses under the kilometre scheme.

“The respective governments are making lame excuses for the past five years as they had promised to bring policies for regularisation of their services in 2017 and 2022 but it had completely failed to fulfil their promise to date,” he said.

Presently, conductors on contract are being paid ₹17,000 per month, while drivers, also on contract, get ₹18,000 per month.

“As a symbolic gesture, the union said they will burn the copies of the state budget on April 3. Despite repeated assurances from CM Bhagwant Mann, including a meeting held on July 1 last year in Jalandhar where the government promised to resolve our demands in a month, nothing has been done. Instead of fulfilling the promise of making workers permanent, the government has resorted to delays, leading to growing frustration among workers,” Gill added.

Harkesh Kumar Vicky, state vice president of the union and Shamsher Singh Dhillon, state general secretary, echoed similar concerns, emphasising that the workers’ issues have been ignored for years. “For the last three years, we have had multiple meetings with the state government and higher authorities of Punjab Roadways, Punbus, and PRTC management, urging them to address our demands. Our discontent is rooted in the perceived lack of progress following a meeting that took place on February 17, with key government officials, including former Punjab advocate general Gurminder Singh and transport minister Laljit Bhullar,” they said.

The government had during the meeting agreed to streamline the regularisation process for workers with five years of continuous service and assured immediate drafting of a policy for cabinet approval. However, no progress has been made since then, Dhillon added.