MADURAI
Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) employees associated with a number of trade unions staged a demonstration outside TNSTC Madurai’s headquarters here on Tuesday demanding the reinstatement of 11 employees suspended during the TNSTC employees’ week-long strike across the State in January.
The employees also demanded the withdrawal of cases filed against these 11 employees of TNSTC Madurai by the police.
G. Rajendran of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions’ TNSTC wing said that the 11 employees had been under suspension for 60 days with no further communication from the organisation.
S. Sampath, State Treasurer, TNSTC Staff Federation, said that the standing orders of TNSTC allowed an employee to be kept under suspension only for 30 days.
“If they are initiating some action or issuing a show-cause notice, we will handle it. But how can they be kept under suspension for long without any information,” he asked.
According to Mr. Sampath, the action by TNSTC went against the instructions of Madras High Court that asked TNSTC not to take punitive action against the striking employees.
Alleging that the cases were foisted by the police against these 11 employees, Mr. Rajendran said that the cases must be withdrawn.
He also blamed the TNSTC for punishing the employees, who actively took part in the strike, through transfers between branches by providing unreasonable justifications.
“The officials say that these people were transferred as they were the junior most. However, there are employees junior than those transferred, but they did not take part in the strike,” he said.
“The TNSTC management must understand that only because of our strike the government released ₹ 750 crore of pending dues to the retired employees who were struggling to get their benefits for long” he said.
Other associations like All India Trade Union Congress and Labour Progressive Front also took part in the demonstrations. The employees said that the protests will be intensified if TNSTC did not meet their demands.
