Thirty-five hours after bringing bus services to a grinding halt and leaving lakhs of commuters stranded on the city's roads, the BEST Employees Union called off their strike on Wednesday afternoon after the state government’s intervention.
The BEST Employees Union was unhappy over the administration’s decision to implement the new computerised "Canadian schedule" for workers. The decision to postpone the implementation of this new schedule till June 1 was taken in a meeting between the union leaders and the state’s chief secretary.
According to the "Canadian" schedule, the workers will have to work for two four-hour periods, with a break of four hours in between.
Around 26,000 drivers and conductors of BEST buses had gone on mass leave from Tuesday. The union had claimed that the new schedule will increase the shift hours from eight to 12.
“Appropriate changes will be made in the schedule and it will be implemented only after consulting us. We are happy with the decision and will ask the workers to resume work at the earliest,” said Sharad Rao, the BEST Employees Union leader, after the meeting.
