Itahari, July 11:

Though bus fares are hiked as soon as the price of petroleum products go up, salaries of transport workers has remained constant since past five years.

They said that the bus-owners turn deaf ears to their repeated requests to hike their salaries and daily allowances. They complained that they are compelled to tolerate exploitation, as they have no option to the employment. The transport workers have to work for upto 14 hours daily in the minimum salary.

“We get two thousand rupees per month and Rs 25 per trip and we have to work from six in the morning till eight in the night,” Anand Bajgain, driver of minibus (Ko 1 Ja 941) on the Dharan-Biratnagar route said.

“There is no uniformity in our salaries, it depends on the owners and their moods,” helper Mani Raj Rai of Ko 1 Ja 942, a passenger bus on Dharan-Biratnagar route said. There are a number of children working in the buses for Rs 500 salary and two meals a day.

Secretary of Nepal Transport Free Workers’ Association, Koshi Bhim Rai said that the government has done nothing to uplift the living standard of transport workers. “The workers should be given appointment letter, facility of provident fund and appropriate salary for the transport workers,” Rai said.“We would be compelled to launch agitation, if salaries of transport workers is not increased,” he added.

Transport entrepreneurs admitted that workers are being exploited.