COIMBATORE: A TNSTC bus was confiscated on Friday on the order of the Additional Labour Court, Coimbatore, after TNSTC failed to pay the arrears on subsistence allowance to a driver of the Udumalpet branch in Tiruppur district.
Court staff seized the ultra low-floor bus of the Sungam branch 1, which operates on route number 11, from the Railway Station and brought it to the Coimbatore district combined court complex.
The issue pertains to driver A Duraisamy (57) who was placed under suspension on August 24, 2021, after an accident three months earlier.
"On May 5, 2021, when I was driving the bus from Erode to Udumalpet, a man who was drunk, caused an accident with my bus at Vijayamangalam area in Tiruppur. The man came from a shortcut road and hit the bus. He died two days later," Duraisamy told TNIE.
"I was provided half salary for the first month of suspension. After one month of suspension, the officers did not give me duty or subsistence allowance for the following five months."
"Against this, I filed a petition at the Labour Court in Coimbatore on January 7, 2022. The court directed me to join duty on March 19, 2022 and ordered the TNSTC to pay Rs 32,157 as subsistence allowance, to be computed with 12% interest per annum."
Duraisamy approached the Additional Labour Court after the TNSTC didn't comply with the previous order.
"I filed an execution petition in the Additional Labour Court on March 28, 2023. On November 10, it ordered the seizure of the TNSTC bus for failing to pay the subsistence allowance to me. The bus has been seized," he stated.
Duraisamy has been based at the Udumalpet branch for 18 years.