Ten deaths in eight days: Perils of employment in KSRTC

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: On February 7th, driver Manikandan of Kattappana depot, conductor R.V. Arun of Pappanamcode depot on 9th, conductor K. Murali of Vadakara on 12th, inspector Pradeep Kumar of Kumily on 14th, driver P.K. Ashokan Nair of Pathanamthitta...

In eight days, 5 lives were lost in KSRTC. The number of people who died prematurely in 46 days this year is 16. One death every two or three days!

The cause of death of majority of them is cardiac arrest. Some of them committed suicide.

The employees of this public sector undertaking are growing anxious about this. It is generally thought that excessive workload and mental stress caused by punitive measures are the reasons for the increase in premature deaths. Neither the KSRTC management nor the transport department is ready to conduct a study on this or take remedial measures.

Employees have decreased; workload has increased

There has been no permanent appointment in KSRTC since 2018. Ten years ago, there were 43,000 employees, of which 8,500 were temporary employees. Now there are 23,000 permanent employees and 3,200 temporary employees.

Reasons that contributes to the stress of KSRTC employees:

• Having to do double duty or one-and-a-half duty.
• Changes in duty times create difficulties for those who need to follow a proper food regimen.
• Pressure created by collection targets.
• There are no health plans like Medisep.
• It is difficult to get leave even if they have health problems.
• Show cause notice is necessary to show for taking sudden leaves, and departmental action often follow this.
• Inaccurate salary distribution.
• Situation where loans from PF are not available even for treatment.

"Not paying salaries on time and denying benefits is making a section of employees in debt. When the pressure increases, many cannot bear it." - M.G. Rahul, Secretary, Transport Employees Union