Thiruvananthapuram, 30 August (H.S.)The Kerala State Human Rights Commission has held that denying legitimate benefits to Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) employees is illegal and amounts to a violation of Article 300A of the Constitution.

Commission Chairperson Justice Alexander Thomas directed the authorities to intervene immediately at the official level to ensure that all benefits lawfully due to the employees are disbursed without further delay.

The commission asked the Transport Department secretary to convene a meeting involving the KSRTC managing director, the corporation's law officer and representatives of employees' unions. The meeting should examine the long-pending grievances of the workforce and arrive at practical measures to resolve them.

Based on the decisions taken at the meeting, the Transport Department secretary should issue clear written directions to the KSRTC managing director without delay. The commission said the managing director must implement these directions strictly and within the stipulated timeframe.

The order also clarified that employees or complainants who are dissatisfied with any decision taken by the Transport Department secretary or the KSRTC managing director would be free to approach the competent court for appropriate legal remedies.

The directive was issued on a complaint highlighting several unresolved service-related issues affecting KSRTC employees. These included irregular salary payments, denial of dearness allowance, failure to remit contributions recovered from employees under the National Pension System and uncertainty surrounding the payment of NPS pensions.

The complaint also raised concerns over delays in depositing provident fund contributions and the non-payment of other benefits legally due to employees.

The commission observed that prolonged withholding of legitimate financial benefits could not be justified and required urgent administrative intervention. It emphasised that benefits already earned by employees constituted their property and could not be denied arbitrarily.

The proceedings followed a complaint filed by employees' union leader S Ajayakumar, who sought the commission's intervention to secure a time-bound settlement of the workers' grievances.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Arun Lakshman