In a bid to ensure parity among employees at the maintenance depots of the Tamil Nadu state transport corporation (TNSTC), authorities have instructed depot officials to ask workers affiliated to the ruling party also to do night shifts. The day shift is much sought as fewer vehicles come for maintenance to depots, compared to night shift.
The workers of the ruling party, whichever one is in power, have been enjoying the luxury of working in day shift, resulting in poor strength during ‘tougher’ night shift.
“There has been an unwritten rule that employees belonging to the ruling party-affiliated union have an upper hand in the depots of the state transport corporation, which affected the maintenance of buses.
This initiative will put an end to such practices, thereby ensuring the availability of required number of technical staff even during night shifts. Henceforth, equal number of staff will work in both shifts, on alternate week on rotation basis,” senior sources in the transport department told DC.
They added that the ruling party-affiliated union employees, of both Dravidian parties, had been enjoying the luxury of working in day shifts for over several years, thereby resulting in inadequate staff strength during night shift.
“If a depot had 20 technical employees, around 15 would be in day shift, when only fewer buses come for maintenance, while only five employees would be available during the night shift when most of the buses arrive for maintenance,” he pointed out.
Sources said “The recent move was a old one and has started to yield results. We wanted to ensure parity among workers which would also help in better maintenance of vehicles.”