Bengaluru: Around 23,000 state-run transport buses have resumed operations in Karnataka as employees called off an indefinite strike that hit thousands of commuters in the last three days, after the government agreed on a 12.5% increase in salaries for state transport corporation employees.

Nearly 1.25 crore passengers across the state were stranded due to non-availability of services and lack of any alternative, Mint reported on Tuesday. Normal life was paralysed and schools and colleges remained shut in parts of the state, including in Bengaluru, where almost 60% of the commuters of the city’s roughly 10 million population use public transport.

The joint committee of the four protesting unions, who claimed to represent over 1.2 lakh workers, agreed to call off the strike after negotiations with the state government yielded a 12.5% hike in salary for employees.

The unions were sticking to their demand for a 35% wage hike until Tuesday, while the government was ready to give a 10% hike at a cost of ₹ 1,500 crore.

The 12.5% hike will put an additional burden of ₹ 2,800 crore on the government over the next four years, Deccan Chronicle reported. However, if a deal was not stricken, the government would have continued to bleed. Losses for the government due to the three-day strike, said to be Karnataka’s longest bus strike, has been estimated as ₹ 51 crore, the report said.

Industry associations in Bengaluru had been urging both workers’ unions and the government to come to a mutual agreement, as the strike affected several sectors, especially the labour intensive ones like textile and garment.

The three-day strike has severely truncated employee turnout in the entire cross-section of industries in and around Bengaluru, said Thyagu Valliappa, president, Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce, in a statement.

“Over the last three days, industry production lines are working at sub-optimal levels. This will affect the industry bottom line as it is already reeling under severe margin pressures," he said.

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