PANAJI: The chairman of the Kadamba Transport Corporation Ltd, Mr Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco on Friday warned that the financial condition of the corporation is not so good, and will not be able to sustain the burden of the implementation of VIth pay commission recommendations for too long, if the workers do not dedicate themselves to the organisation.

Speaking to reporters, after signing the agreement with the KTC workers’ union, late Friday evening, Mr Lourenco said the KTC has the potential to become self-sustaining if the workers increase their output by just 10 per cent.
He further said that the Karnataka State Transport Corporation, and the Maharashtra State Transport Corporation are doing much better than the KTC and added that after the implementation of the VIth pay commission recommendations, the onus is on the employees to work collectively to make the organsation more profitable.
The KTCL chairman said that with the implementation of the VIth pay commission recommendations, the KTC will have to bear an additional burden Rs 1.5 crore per month, which is Rs 18 crore per year.
He also said that the KTC has decided to pay the arrears with retrospective effect from 2006, which will add an additional burden of another Rs 24-26 crore, to be paid in six equal installments.
He said that the employees were given assurance that the VIth pay commission recommendations would be implemented from April 1, 2010, however, the KTC had to wait for the assurance from the Chief Minister, Mr Digambar Kamat and the Transport Minister, Mr Ramkrishna Dhavalikar as the KTC would not be in a position to bear the additional burden of the wages.
Earlier, the agreement was signed by Mr Lourenco in the presence of the Labour Commissioner, Mr V Raikar, managing director of KTC, Mr Venancio Furtado, general secretary of the KTC workers’ union, Mr Christopher Fonseca and other committee members, which resulted in wild celebrations by the workers.
Later speaking to the reporters, Mr Fonseca assured the management of KTC that the workers will dedicate themselves to improve the finances of the corporation. They would maintain the social objective of the organization, he added.
With regard to the non-issuing of tickets by conductors, Mr Fonseca assured that the issue has been addressed in the agreement and that the committee will assure that the tickets are issued to the passengers, which will surely help the organisation. Over 2000 employees of KTC will benefit from the revised pay scale.