Karnataka High Court Stays Transport Employees’ Indefinite Strike, Bus Services Safe

Bengaluru: In a major setback to the transport department unions in Karnataka, the Karnataka High Court has stayed the proposed indefinite strike by the transport department employees, which would have hit the bus services in Karnataka from Wednesday.

After failed talks with the Minister, Labour department Commissioner for meeting their demands of pay revise by 25% and clearing of pending salaries for 26 months immediately, the Joint Action Committee of the four State owned Road Transport Corporation had decided to go on indefinite strike.

However, just after they announced their decision, following a petition filed by Vedavathi, who works as a maid servant in Bengaluru and a construction labour H S Sridhar, the Karnataka High Court bench comprising Justice Suraj Govindraj and Justice K Manmatha Rao issued directions to the labour unions to call off their strikes.

In their petition, the two had said that the transport strike would put the middle and lower middle class people into hardship. The petitioners' advocate Vikram Huyalgola argued that this was a peak time in rural and semi rural areas.The State Secondary Board supplementary examinations will be held between May 18 and May 25. The students in rural and semi rural areas are dependent on the government buses and if they resort to strike, the students will be affected.

The division bench directed the transport department labour unions to stop their strike immediately and hold talks with the government to sort out their problems.

Earlier, the labour union meetings with the Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy failed, and even the meeting with the labour commissioner on Monday failed to make any headway. After Monday's meeting, the Joint Action Committee of the labour unions have decided to go ahead with the strike from Wednesday.

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However, the unions have indicated that they were ready for one more round of talks with the Chief Minister himself.

JAC Convener Jayadevaraje Urs said that the conciliation meeting held with the labour commissioner did not involve decision making authorities from the government and no agreement could be reached on the key demands of the employees. The labour commissioner, on behalf of the government requested them to defer the strike till May 25, assuring them their demands may be considered. However, the union leaders contended that they needed a concrete reason to convince the union members.

The Unions have informed their members to remain at their homes peacefully and not to come on the street or resort to any kind of protest.