MSRTC begins counselling of staff, their kin to end strike

Striking MSRTC workers at Azad Maidan on Monday. Pic/Suresh Karkera

With the industrial court declaring the MSRTC strike illegal, the transport corporation has begun counselling its agitating staff and their families to persuade them to get back to work. To keep the buses going, it has started engaging retired staffers, home guards and private drivers.

Till last week, less than 26,500 of MSRTC's 96,000 employees had resumed, keeping just 125 of the 250 depots running, that too partially. The strike by the employees of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation is nearing 100 days.

The Nehru Nagar ST stand at Kurla bears a deserted look on Wednesday. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

"At Kolhapur, we have started sending senior staff to the homes of striking employees and meeting them and their families to inform them how the government has revised the salary structure, assured timely payment every month and more benefits were in place once the employees returned to work. We will be doing this at many other places to correct the perspective of the employees and bring them back at work," a senior MSRTC official said.

Besides counselling, the MSRTC has also promised to revoke the punishment once the employees are back on duty. Earlier this week, the labour court ruled that the strike was illegal. This means MSRTC can take legal steps like suspension and termination, slashing salaries of striking employees or even imposing penalties.

The Maharashtra government has tried everything, from legal battles to harsh actions, but the employees haven't budged so far. They have been firm on their stand of merging the corporation with the state government, a demand which is being looked into by a court-appointed committee. The merger will accord them the status of state government employees.

Two weeks ago, mid-day had highlighted how superstitions, fakery and rumours were being used to instil a sense of fear and hope among the employees to keep the strike going.

26,500
No. of employees that returned to work as of last week