HYDERABAD: After the Telangana High Court on Monday referred the RTC strike to the labour commissioner, the unions leading the strike are now exploring their options, including calling off the strike, which has entered a record 45th day.
RTC JAC convenor E Ashwathama Reddy, after ending his hunger strike at the hospital on the request of the Opposition political parties, said they would take a decision on calling off the strike on Tuesday evening after going through a copy of the court verdict.
He hoped the state government would deal with the issue with a humane attitude, and as a measure of building an atmosphere of mutual trust, the JAC has called off the Sadak Bandh scheduled for Tuesday. He, however, said the strike would continue till a decision is taken on it, and appealed to employees to go ahead with other forms of protest. "We are awaiting the (court) order copy. We will take a decision on the strike tomorrow evening. The sadak bandh protest stands deferred," Ashwathama Reddy said on Monday.
This statement and that of the RTC workers’ counsel in court, that the employees were willing to call off the strike if they were assured that they could resume duties without any problem, led to an impression that the staff were not in the mood to continue the strike.
Ethically, the RTC JAC has to call off the strike since the resolution process has been ordered, with the court referring the strike to the labour commissioner to resolve the issue within two weeks or refer it to the labour court.
Meanwhile, officials in the Labour department are contemplating referring the case to the labour court directly without reopening it because negotiations between the RTC management and unions had failed, and a failure report had already been submitted to the High Court.
Earlier in the day, the court, giving its verdict in the case, ordered conciliation by the labour commissioner.
“This court cannot monitor this complicated dispute. Since the Supreme Court has held that the high courts cannot declare the strike either legal or illegal, the labour court is the appropriate forum to decide on it”, the bench noted.
The State government’s counsels argued that the court cannot direct the State government and the corporation to hold talks with trade unions even as the counsel for the unions held that the court had the power to order the constitution of a committee with retired Supreme Court judges.
However, the court differed with the latter’s point of view.The High Court bench, comprising Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A Abhishek Reddy hoped the government and the corporation would resolve the problem.
It observed that the strike has got to do with 48,000 employees and their families, who would be on the streets if the government took any adverse decision.It is also clear that the staff would not be able to get alterative employment if they lost their jobs in the TSRTC, the court pointed out.
Government must be kind: Telangana HC