No work, full pay: Union accuses MTC of favouring AIADMK men

No work, full pay: Union accuses MTC of favouring AIADMK men

Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com

Chennai:20.11.2020

Pay without work is what the city’s bus service, Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC), is accused of giving its drivers affiliated to the ruling AIADMK.

On Wednesday, MTC workers belonging to the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) staged a protest over this at Iyyappanthangal bus depot. MTC authorities denied these allegations, attributing them to inter-union rivalry. But documents submitted by the CITU union to buttress their charge tell another story.

The documents included payment receipts printed by higher-ups at the depots based on transport return (TR) documents filled manually by bus conductors at the end of every trip. These TR documents show the number of tickets sold and have a column for the driver’s name.

“We had accessed documents pertaining to bus trips made in the fourth week of January and first week of February. On four different occasions, AIADMK drivers were paid over ₹1,200 as salary even when they did not turn up for work,” said Dayanand from CITU, who led the protest on Wednesday.

For instance, in one case, Thangeswaran, a driver at Iyappanthagal worked on full shift, driving a small bus route number S21 (Porur-Ramapuram) for eight hours. The TR sheets had his name but the payment receipts had the name of another driver named Sivakumar.

In another case, payment receipts showed that driver Saravanan drove an MTC bus along 166 route (Iyyapanthagal-Tambaram), but the TR sheets showed a different name.

After Thangeswaran complained, he was transferred to Aynavaram. His transfer was later put on hold following opposition from workers.

“After this complaint, MTC refused to share documents with us. Four violations in two weeks at one branch indicate that this could be rampant across the city leading to losses in crores. MTC is already facing huge losses due to reduced patronage and Covid-19 travel restrictions. Such corruption amid this will make things worse,” Dayanand added.

In response, Anbarasu, MTC Branch Manager at Iyyapanthangal, said, “The transfers were made three months ago when Thangeswaran tried to physically attack the former branch manager Muthu. Transport unions are trying to cover it up by playing the corruption card. There was no chance for any violation”