BRTC staff, drivers withdraw demonstration

Agitating drivers and staff of Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation today withdrew their demonstration after the BRTC chairman agreed to meet their demands.

They withdrew their demonstration around 7:00pm, BRTC Secretary Noor-e-Alam told The Daily Star.

As per the discussion with them, BRTC will cancel its decision of sacking and transferring drivers and will give salary from head office on the first day of every month and will pay the arrears gradually, he said.

A driver, who participated in the meeting with Chairman BRTC Chairman Farid Uddin Ahmed, however, said the authority assured of giving all arrears within two months.

Earlier in the day, around 100 staff and drivers of the 22 depots of (BRTC) confined their chairman in his office room for several hours and staged sit-in at the BRTC head office in Motijheel Dilkusha area demanding arrears.

They also demanded all drivers who were previously fired for demonstration should also be reinstated into their jobs.

Today is the last day of BRTC Chairman Farid Uddin and the workers are demanding that their arrears should be cleared before he leaves office.

Our correspondent went through the back gate of the head office to talk to the chairman who said the workers who remained unpaid for the last three to four months will get their payment within four months.

But the payment of the rest workers will be cleared as soon as possible, he added.

The issue with arrear came up after a new pay scale was implemented which significantly increased the expenditure of the depots as the expenditure has to be managed from the income of the depot, the chairman said.

BRTC has bought 1,100 vehicles and around 500 buses have already been added to the fleet which has increased their income and this will help clear a lot of the arrear within four months, the chairman said.