CHENNAI: As much as Rs 5,000 crore has been deducted from the salaries/wages of workers of the various transport corporations, but it has not been remitted to their corresponding accounts, senior advocate N G R Prasad told the First Bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quddhose on Monday.
When the matter came up before the Bench, Prasad told the judges that the issue had been around for about 10 years. The PF and other mandatory amounts had been recovered from the wages of the workers, but not remitted to the respective accounts. The money siphoned off was being used for running the corporations, he alleged.
When the Bench asked whether that was the reason for the strike, Prasad replied, “Yes”. “How can the government hold back PF funds that were deducted?” said the Bench. The government cannot withhold PF dues that were already deducted. Such benefits are the statutory right of the workers, it added.
Advocate-General Vijay Narayan told the judges that the issue had been already seized of by a Division Bench of the court and as per its orders, the government had paid Rs 379 crore till now.But even then, such flash strikes cannot be tolerated as they affect the common people and put them to inconvenience, the Bench observed. “I heard that even some schools have been closed due to non-availability of public transport,” the Chief Justice told the counsel.
“The flash strike will not affect the government employees, but the common people. The ministers or the authorities will not suffer, they would travel in the fancy cars provided by the government. Even when the ambulance (108) workers resorted to strike, we declared it illegal, but also directed the government to negotiate,” the Bench said.