Bus services between Rajshahi and Dhaka resumed on Tuesday afternoon, after remaining suspended for about 41 hours due to transport workers’ strike for pay rise.
Rajshahi District Motor Workers’ Union general secretary Rafiq Ali Pakhi announced the resumption at around 2:15pm.
He said that the transport workers withdrew the strike after bus owners had assured them an increase in wages by September 24.
Earlier on Sunday morning, transport workers suspended bus services, demanding a pay rise alleging that their wages were stagnated at the same level for long.
They alleged they had been drawing the same wages for nearly a decade—Tk 1,100 for drivers, 500 for supervisors and Tk 400 for driver’s assistants (helpers) per trip.
The workers demanded that the rate per trip should be raised to Tk 2,000 for drivers, Tk 1,100 for supervisors and Tk 1,000 for helpers, with higher payments for trips extending to Kansat in Chapainawabganj.
The strike left passengers in distress on Monday and Tuesday, as no bus except those of Ekota Transport operated on the route.
Many commuters were forced to take costly alternative transport or cancel urgent trips.
