Following the Haryana Roadways’ decision to terminate services of at least 365 bus drivers across the state, the roadways employees on Monday held protest for two hours at all bus depots across Haryana.
The union leaders of Haryana Roadways Joint Action Committee also announced to convene a meeting on December 5 at Rohtak to decide next course of action if the State Government fails to withdraw the termination orders.
During the protest at various depots, the employees raised slogans against the State Government. Criticizing the State Government for its anti-employee policies, Sarbat Punia, general secretary, Haryana Roadways Workers Union said that this is the third move initiated by the State Government to provoke its employees.
Earlier, the government decided to hire private buses. Then it discontinued the overtime of employees and also night halt of buses at rural areas. Now, it has terminated the services of 365 temporary drivers recruited in 2016, he said. The employees unions will announce a massive protest on December 5 if the government does not withdraw its orders and make the services of these 365 drivers permanent, he added. While terming government’s order of doing away with the services of 365 drivers as a diktat, Punia said this is also against the directions of High Court. Instead of giving employment to people, this government is snatching the jobs of its existing employees, he alleged. Notably, the roadways employees’ unions and Haryana Government have been at loggerheads several times in the past few months over various issues. Earlier, the roadways employees unions had been protesting against the State Government’s decision to hire 700 private buses in Haryana. Their longest ever strike against the decision had came to an end on its 18th day on November 2, after the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s intervention. Recently, the roadways unions had also criticized the State Government’s order of discontinuing the overtime policy of roadways employees and also, discontinuing the night halt of buses in rural areas of the state.
The employees had alleged that both the decisions had hit the general public in the state.
