Employees of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking withdrew their strike on Thursday after a court issued an interim order staying the induction of 450 private buses into BEST’s fleet till March 5.
Barred from striking
BEST committee member Sunil Ganacharya said, “The industrial court has stayed the February 12 decision of the BEST committee. The BEST administration had approached the industrial court on Wednesday to deter employees from striking work. The workers were also barred from going on a strike in the same order.”
BJP city president Ashish Shelar said in a tweet that if the employees had heeded the party’s call to wait till the court’s order, they would not have had to face flak. Mr. Shelar had met with the union leaders on Wednesday.
Union leaders of the BEST employees’ action committee had also met Mumbai municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta on Wednesday evening to discuss the decision to protest against the induction of new private buses. The members of the action committee demanded that the BEST committee put off its decision on hiring the buses till the court decided on the matter.
Shashank Rao, general secretary of the BEST Workers Union, said, “We also insisted that the municipal commissioner give us a written undertaking that the BMC should manage its losses as it is the one insisting on bringing in private buses. However, the commissioner refused to give such an undertaking.” The Shiv Sena’s affiliated union had refused to participate in the strike.
