Hyderabad: In what could be seen as a significant move, the Telangana government has given its nod to conduct the trade union elections in the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TGSRTC), after more than 12 years.

Election to the TGSRTC trade unions has been one of the principal demands put forth by various unions during their negotiations with successive state governments, ever since the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government had de-recognized the trade unions.

The re-recognition election is an important democratic exercise that provides TGSRTC employees an opportunity to elect their representative trade union for collective bargaining and employee welfare matters.

The TGSRTC workers’ unions had placed 32 demands before the state government, out of which the government had agreed in principle to fulfill 29 demands. Among the rest of the demands was the recognition of TGSRTC worker unions and to conduct elections to them.

For the past few days, there has been back and forth between the state government and the TGSRTC unions’ leaders, where there was a trade-off between the merger of TGSRTC with the state government, and the conduct of union elections.

Reports had speculated that a section of the union leaders decided to push forward their long-standing demand to recognize the unions and to conduct the elections to the TGSRTC unions.

As a fall-out of the decision taken by the state government in favour of the unions’ immediate demand, the Labour Department has appointed Sunitha Gopaldas, the Joint Commissioner of Labour, Hyderabad Twin Cities, as the Returning Officer for conducting the upcoming trade union elections in TGSRTC.

The elections are being conducted to ascertain the representative trade union of TGSRTC employees in accordance with the prescribed procedure and guidelines governing the recognition of trade unions in public sector undertakings.

The returning officer will oversee the entire election process to ensure that the elections are conducted in a free, fair, transparent, and impartial manner.

Sunitha Gopaldas will be responsible for the conduct of all election-related activities, including scrutiny of nominations, publication of eligible voters’ lists, polling arrangements, counting of votes, declaration of results, and the resolution of election-related issues in accordance with the applicable rules and procedures.

The Labour Department has initiated necessary arrangements in coordination with the TGSRTC’s management and the representatives of various trade unions to facilitate smooth conduct of the elections.

Detailed election schedules, polling stations, voter eligibility criteria, and other procedural aspects will be notified separately by the returning officer.

The Labour Department has appealed to all participating trade unions, employees, and stakeholders to extend their cooperation to ensure peaceful and orderly conduct of the election process.