Senior Punjabi government officials will hold meetings on Tuesday with representatives of contract and subcontracted employees of state-owned transport companies who have been on indefinite strike for a week.

Bus services across the state remained at a standstill on Monday as nearly 8,200 employees of Pepsu Road Transport Corporation (PRTC), Punjab Roads and PUNBUS took time off work for the seventh day in a row.

Contractual and outsourced employees have been asking for their employment to be regularized for more than 10 years. With 80% of the staff on strike, the three transport companies suffer daily losses in crore. PRTC has only been able to operate 10% of its 1,100-person fleet in the past week. Daily turnover falling to ??65 lakh, he’s lonely face ??1.2 crore losses every day.

PRTC chief executive Parneet Kaur Shergill said meetings were underway with the protesters, but they were reluctant to end their strike.

“The protesting employees will also hold key meetings with senior government officials on Tuesday,” she said, adding that authorities called on them to end the strike and continue it on a rotational basis, so that the services do not suffer.

Harkesh Singh Vicky, vice chairman of the contract workers union Roadways / PRTC, said they also had the support of several farmers’ unions, who assured them of their help in lobbying the state government .

“If the state government does not take any decision regarding our regularization request, we will block national and national highways across the state,” he said, adding that the government was threatening to take them away from their jobs. . Among other demands, the union wants strict measures to control the transport mafia, the rationalization of the daily schedule and the implementation of the law on equal pay for equal work.

“It will be difficult for PRTC to overcome the losses in the coming days. We were already working hard to close the gap between daily income and expenses, ”said a PRTC official.