HYDERABAD: As per the Supreme Court verdict, any strike which causes inconvenience to the society, will be declared as illegal. Some senior advocates termed the ongoing strike by RTC employees as not justifiable since their demands are not part of the service conditions. As per law, state government/corporation has got powers to terminate such striking employees. On the other hand, some lawyers are of the view that the government/corporation’s decision to dismiss these employees from service will not stand legal scrutiny. They wanted the government to have an amicable approach in resolving the issue.
As for the question of the right to strike, the Supreme Court has held that there is no fundamental right to go on strike. “The question of the right to strike - whether fundamental, statutory or equitable/moral right - in our view, no such right exists with the government employees. Law on this subject is well settled and it has been repeatedly held by this court that the employees have no fundamental right to resort to strike”, the Apex Court opined in Kameshwar Prasad and others vs State of Bihar case.
Asked about his view on the strike, former advocate general of Telangana HC K Ramakrishna Reddy said that any strike which causes inconvenience to the society would become illegal as per the Supreme Court ruling. In general, an agreement would be reached between the employer and an employee as per the service conditions of the organisation concerned, and hence in-between demands are not permissible. The RTC employees’ demand to merge the corporation with the State government is not justifiable as it involves financial aspect, and also there is no such agreement between the corporation and employees. If the government considers their demand then there is scope for similar demands from other corporations as well, and ultimately it will lead to financial recession, he opined.
As for the decision of the government to sack about 48,000 striking employees, the former AG said that the TSRTC is entitled to take any step either to terminate or suspend the striking staff provided the latter act contrary to their service conditions. If the employees are not paid proper wages, then they can demand for better pay within the framework of service conditions. In the present case, the employees’ demands on ‘merger’ and so on are illegal since they are not as per service conditions.
On the other hand, senior advocate S Satyam Reddy said that the decision to dismiss the striking employees will not stand legal scrutiny. When a similar situation arose in Tamil Nadu in 2003 when the then State government terminated the services of about 2 lakh employees, the government had re-instated them when employees moved the high court. The Telangana government should not terminate the striking staff in the name of ‘illegality’, but should have an amicable approach in resolving their demands, he added.
When a similar situation happened in Telangana in 2015, the High Court while declaring the strike as illegal, directed the striking employees to resume their duties forthwith. The court made it clear that the demand to give 43 per cent fitment to the employees is a policy decision of the government and that the Court cannot intervene in such issues.
Later, the court initiated proceedings under the Contempt of Courts Act against the RTC employees’ union leaders for not obeying its earlier orders to call off their strike and join the duties forthwith. After the strike was called off, the court dismissed the case as infructuous.