The BEST general manager Surendrakumar Bagde on Monday agreed to roll back its decision to slash ₹500 from the salary of its 42,000 employees for the next 11 months, which would go towards their Diwali bonus of ₹5,500.
The BEST employees had been upset after they noticed the deduction in their January pay slips. On Monday, BEST committee member Sunil Ganacharya moved an adjournment motion demanding that the full salary be restored.
Ravi Raja of the Congress said that the deduction has been forced on the employees. Mr. Raja also wondered how the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation could afford to spend crores on the upkeep of penguins, but not spare ₹23 crore to give a Diwali bonus to the BEST’s 42,000 employees.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members also demanded that the amount deducted in the salary slips be returned to the employees. Shrikant Kawtankar of the BJP asked how the BMC could pay its staff ₹14,500 as Diwali bonus and refuse to give ₹5,500 to BEST employees.
Finally, Mr. Bagde agreed to alter the pay slips and pay all employees their salary without deductions by February 15
