Holding the government responsible for the mess in HRTC, Shankar Singh, president of the Joint Coordination Committee, said that privatisation of HRTC, allotting profit making routes to private operators and making it obligatory for the HRTC to operate on loss making routes had pushed the HRTC into perpetual red.
Singh demanded that the HRTC be reconverted into Himachal Roadways on the pattern of Punjab.
Retirement benefits of the HRTC employees like gratuity, leave encashment, provident fund and arrears of revised pay scales were not being paid, he said, adding that the retired employees were suffering.
The government has already spent Rs 72 crore from the PF of the employees and the employees of HRTC have been paid only Rs 20,000 out of the arrears, he claimed.
Singh alleged that the HRTC employees were not getting their weekly-offs, and now the employees would resort strictly to work-to-rule and perform eight hours duty.
He also demanded regularisation of contract employees after three years.