‘Drivers forced to work overtime’

Pune Newsline: Pune: Tuesday, May 15, 2012.

Shortage of manpower with the PMPML is forcing the available drivers to work overtime. An RTI query by The Indian Express reveals that on an average, the drivers collectively put in 32,072 man hours of overtime every month.

Though given the number of drivers employed by PMPML, it translates to about one to two hours per day, according to PMT Kamgar Sangh (Intuc) president A N Anpur. The drivers working on contract are made to do most of the overtime as charges for them are lower than the regular staff, he said.

“For overtime, the staff is paid double his per-hour-salary. As contract employees have lesser payments, PMPML gives most of the overtime work to them. There are 567 drivers on contract,” said Anpur. Besides contract drivers, the transport body has 1,778 drivers on its rolls.

According to the PMPML, it paid Rs 3.84 crore to drives and Rs 3.90 crore to conductors for overtime in the last financial year.

PMPML spokesperson Deepak Pardeshi said the transport body has undertaken the drive to recruit more drivers. “Last month, we started recruiting drivers on conctract basis. A batch of about 250 drivers will undergo one-month training in June and will join the staff from July. We will hire 250 more drivers soon,” said Pardeshi. Pardeshi, however, denied the allegations that drivers working on contract basis are burdened with overtime. “We tend to assign overtime to younger drivers, but it’s not to save money. Assignment of overtime depends on scheduled trips on a particular route,” said Pardehsi.

As many 291 new buses have recently been bought by the PMPML and 209 more will join its fleet in a couple of months. “We will have to hire more drivers to make up for the current shortage as well as for the additional buses,” said Pardeshi.