CHENNAI: Declaring the ongoing flash strike by the employees of various transport corporations in the State as illegal, the First Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday advised them to resume work forthwith or face termination from service.
“There will be an interim order restraining the transport corporation workers, more particularly the drivers and conductors, from taking recourse to strike. The striking workers shall forthwith return to duty. Any worker refraining from attending to work and/or performing duty shall do so at his own risk of the consequence thereof, including termination of his service and/or penalisation for gross contempt of the court,” said the Bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quddhose.
The Bench was passing interim orders on a PIL petition from Varaki, who claimed to be a freelance journalist. He prayed to the court to restore the public transport services that have been disrupted by a flash strike of the transport corporation workers pursuant to a single call given by some workers’ unions.
According to petitioner, the government has agreed to increase the wages by 2.44 per cent, whereas the workers demanded 2.57 per cent. The difference is only 0.13 per cent. However, the workers went on a flash strike without prior intimation or information around 6 pm on January 4, leaving thousands of commuters stranded, he contended.
Advocate-General Vijay Narayan submitted that the pay revision of government employees took place once in 10 years. The last revision has covered the period of January 1, 2006, to January 1, 2016. In case of other public sector undertakings controlled by the State government, pay revision takes place once in four years.
In the case of workers of transport corporations, wage revision takes place once in three years. There were earlier settlements — on September 1, 2007, September 1, 2010, and September 1, 2013 — which were effective for three years. The settlement that took place with effect from September 1, 2013, was in force till August 31, 2016. The wage settlement talks were going on and there were 11 to 12 sittings and a settlement had been signed between 32 unions. However, 14 unions refused to sign the same. The benefit given to drivers varies from Rs 2,684 to Rs 10,332 per month, depending on the years of service. It was from Rs 2,706 to Rs 11,361 for drivers, Rs 2,531 to Rs 11,949 for technical staff and Rs 2,534 to Rs 12,566 for administrative staff.
The settlement talks have also finalised the increase in the pay scale from Rs 6,900 to Rs 17,700 for new entrants as drivers by merger of grade, and similarly for all other categories. For employees who entered service after 2013 and till 2016, it was decided to give a special increment of three per cent. This would benefit 32,000 employees.
The average expenditure to the government on this count would be Rs 24 crore per year. This was the highest increase compared to the previous settlements, the Advocate-General said.
Satisfied with the submission, the Bench said there can be no doubt that all employees are entitled to legitimate agitation. However, strike call over issues such as the present one to press for nominal demand for about Rs 600 per month or so cannot be countenanced. The State is bound to protect the right of free movement of its citizens.
‘Violates rights’
A lightning strike without notice leads to denying the citizens their right to free movement and hence is clearly illegal and against public interest, the High Court Bench said