Maharashtra: Not yet paid, MSRTC announces 50% cut in May salary for over 1 lakh employees

This is the first time that the MSRTC, which is dealing with a financial burden, has failed to pay its employees. Unions have opposed the decision to deduct salaries, accusing the management of not foreseeing the crises and not planning for it.

Shrirang Barge, general secretary of Maharashtra ST Karmachari Congress, said, “Those in the lower rung with salary of Rs 20,000 per month will be severely affected. The management should have foreseen the crises and held a consultation with relevant government authorities. Over a lakh employees along with their families depend on the MSRTC for their livelihood.”

Barge alleged that despite incurring a loss of about Rs 22 crore per day, the MSRTC depended entirely on Rs 1,600 crore that the corporation received annually from the government as part of the reimbursement for paying employees their dues.

With its passenger services completely shut since March 23, it was only on May 21 that the MSRTC entered the freight segment and began transporting goods in its trucks with the first delivery of mangoes from Ratnagiri to Mumbai. In the three weeks since, the MSRTC made about Rs 21 lakh by transporting 3,000 tonnes of goods. It transported grains, fertilisers, vegetables along with iron pipes and paints from across 33 divisions in the state. The corporation is hopeful of increasing its earnings through the transportation sector.

Soon after the pandemic struck, the state government had decided to pay salaries of its employees in two tranches for the month of March.

Subsequently, salaries have been paid on time without any cuts.