Late Diwali gift for BMC workers

In an interim relief, the Bombay high court on Thursday directed the BMC to pay its employees the pending Diwali bonus of the previous year. The civic body had refused to give a bonus of '11,000 to the 40,000 employees who had gone on a two-day strike in September 2011. The court was hearing an appeal filed by BMC challenging the order of the single judge asking it to pay the ex-gratia amounting to about '50 crore. On September 19 and 20, 2011, over 40,000 employees of the corporation had gone on a strike to demand the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations. The employees had refused to respect the ruling of the Industrial Tribunal prohibiting them from going on a strike. Following this, the corporation refused to give bonus to these employees. The employees union then moved the industrial court that directed the corporation to pay their bonuses. However, the corporation challenged the order in the tribunal court whose decision was challenged by the employees union. When the matter came to the HC, a single judge directed the corporation to pay the Diwali bonus with an added interest rate of 12 per cent. The corporation challenged this order before a division bench. The division bench of Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice Mridula Bhatkar had initially directed the civic body to abide by the order. However, the lawyer representing the BMC argued that the corporation wants to reprimand the employees for striking and hence, does not want to pay them their bonus. The court then stayed their order for four weeks allowing the civic body to approach the SC if it wishes to.