Telangana Government Fast Tracks TGSRTC Union Elections And 11 Percent PRC

The Telangana government has fast-tracked the process for conducting the union recognition elections for the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TGSRTC) in Hyderabad. Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar announced that the elections will be held shortly, alongside the implementation of an 11 percent Pay Revision Commission (PRC) starting this July.

To expedite the election process, the state government has appointed the labor joint commissioner as the nodal officer. The official election schedule has already been issued, and authorities have begun the voter verification process.

According to Minister Prabhakar, the election of recognized union leaders is a crucial step for the corporation's future. The elected leaders will represent the employees on the RTC merger committee. This representation aims to safeguard the interests of the workers and ensure a smooth merger process without any future complications.

The acceleration of the election process follows intensive negotiations. Recalling the negotiations that took place during the strike, Minister Prabhakar stated that ministers, government officials, and nearly 30 union representatives had held a marathon 14-hour meeting to discuss the workers' grievances. The attendees unanimously resolved the issues during this session.

During the negotiations, the representatives examined a total of 32 demands. The RTC management is already addressing 29 of these demands through an executive directors' committee, as they fell under the direct purview of the management.

The remaining three demands required direct intervention from the state government. These included the recognition of union elections, the implementation of the 2021 PRC, and the RTC merger.

Following these discussions, the government confirmed that the 11 percent PRC will be implemented from July. Furthermore, employees unanimously agreed that their representatives on the merger committee must be chosen from a recognized union, making the upcoming elections a necessary prerequisite for the merger.