Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Tuesday took a lenient view towards the unions that have called the BEST bus strike and allowed their lawyer to inform the union leaders about Tuesday’s court proceedings so that they could take a call on whether they want to call off the strike or not.
The time to take the decision was granted, as none of the leaders who could have taken a decision to end the stir was present in the court. However, the court said that if the unions decide to end the strike, they should not wait to inform the court. If they decide otherwise, the court will pass an appropriate order on Wednesday.
Following the court ord-er, the high power committee on Tuesday submitted its report in a sealed cover in which the committee had recommended certain measures for resolving the stalemate.
The committee also opi-ned that the strike needs to be withdrawn immediately and discussion (on the unions’ demands) shall happen in a cordial environment.
Advocate M.P. Rao, on behalf of the BEST, informed the division bench of Chief Justice N.H. Patil and Justice N.M. Jamdar that the BEST is ready to talk with the union however, they should first end the strike because talks cannot happen while they keep the city to ransom. He also informed the court that the BEST is ready to pay increment to the employees from February 2019 and for rest of their demands about arrears the BEST is ready to negotiate with the unions.
When he informed the court that BEST is incurring huge losses Justice Patil said, “Loss is not the only criteria to run public sector. If you want to run this unit you need to spend money.”
However, when the bench asked union’s lawyer Neeta Karnik if the uni-ons were ready to end the strike, she said she couldn’t answer this question. The matter was adjourned till January 16.
