Plea in HC against payment system of DTC contractual employees

The Delhi High Court has sought the AAP government's reply on a plea seeking setting aside a wage scheme for contractual drivers and conductors of DTC under which they were paid Rs four per km.
Justice Sudershan Kumar Mishra issued notice to the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and sought their stand on a plea by some contractual personnel who alleged that they were victimised by the arbitrary and unguided policy of the payment system.
The court has now fixed the matter for October 10, before which the government and DTC have to file their replies.
Petitioner Amit Yadav and three others have claimed in their plea that they are facing "inhuman and unequal" treatment from the department in terms of "unequal salary and perks in comparison with the regular employees of the DTC".

While seeking regularisation of their services, the plea filed through advocate Abhishek Choudhary, said the department pays them remuneration calculated as per the "per kilometre payment system".
"If the bus breaks down after running of around 10 kilometre then the contractual driver will get per kilometre multiple of 10 kilometre only i.E. 10 kilometre x Rs four per kilometre = Rs 40 for that day.

"Therefore, respondents (Delhi government and DTC) have been harassing and maltreating the petitioners on countless number of parameters by treating them as aliens and robots," the plea alleged.
It said that the contractual employees are compelled to run more and more kilometres, which creates risk to life and property not only to them, but also to the general public, as the petitioners are forced to cover more distance in the given time slabs.

"This situation creates an atmosphere of competition on road for maximising kilometres-driven, wherein the petitioners are put into a race to fetch more and more handsome amount at the end of the day.
"But in doing so, there is always an inherent risk of high speed, reckless driving, driving without taking adequate rest, which creates stress and attention-deficit in the minds of the petitioners. That the same is also a significant reason for spate of incidents of road rage on Delhi roads," they said in their plea.