Employees of the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) at the KK Nagar bus depot went on a flash strike on Monday morning, protesting the alleged new restrictions on tea breaks during night shifts.
The flash strikes threw the travel schedules of passengers, particularly office-goers and school students, out of gear. According to M Chandran, president of the CITU-affiliated State Transport Employees Union, several employees were agitated over the closure of the depot gates, preventing them from venturing out for an early morning tea break.
“Generally, the employees on night shifts have two tea breaks — one at midnight and the next around 4 am. However, they were shocked to see the gates being closed, confining them inside the depot,” he claimed. Alleging that the MTC authorities were imposing new restrictions by cutting down the number of tea breaks, he said, this forced the technical staff to resort to a flash protest against the move. “How do you expect an employee to work on a night shift without two breaks?” he asked.
Chandran claimed that a few unhappy crew also joined the agitation, protesting the implementation of another new system, wherein the drivers and conductors can choose their preferred co-worker on board. This affected the shunting out of buses from the depot at K K Nagar, paralysing the bus services originating from the area, he claimed.
The strike that lasted for more than three hours, caused untold hardships for passengers dependent on buses departing from K K Nagar bus terminus.
However, MTC officials claimed that 81 buses left the K K Nagar depot before 6:00 am. “There were disruptions only between 6:15 am and 9:15 am, in which the operation of 51 buses was affected. “Moreover, we never restricted the workers for an early morning tea break, though they were asked to move out in groups,” the official added.
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