All eyes of 48,000 TSRTC employees and their families were fixed on High Court and they waited with a bated breathe to hear what would be the judgement on Monday.
But, looks like the employees were left in the lurch after the on-going 45 day strike. The court which has been very stern on the on-going strike hasn’t delivered a clear verdict, instead gave a direction to the Labour Commissioner to resolve the issue. The court mentioned that it has limitations in directing the government and asked the unions to sort the issue at the earliest. It gave two weeks time to the Labour Commissioner to clear the deadlock which resulted in as many as 34 disappointed employees committing suicides.
High Court opined that it would better for the employees to sort out the differences.
It may be recalled that Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekara Rao during the press meet after Huzurnagar elections mentioned that the High Court cannot do anything in TSTRC employee strike issue. The comments made on Monday by the Court seem to finally support what the CM told earlier.
Meanwhile, last week, employee unions have climbed down a few steps saying that they are willing to keep the demand of merger of TSRTC into government on to the back-burner, if the government promises to take care of the rest 20 demands. Merger was a point of contention between both sides and it resulted in a never-ending deadlock. While the unions came down, the government which was visibly fixated on not negotiating, didn’t take a single step even after the huge compromise by the unions leaders. While, this was happening, the PIL filed in the High Court against the privatization of 5000 routes is still pending.
Post this unexpected response from the HC, TJAS Chairman Kodandaram got TSRTC JAC convenor Ashwaddama Reddy to give up his hunger strike. He said that he wanted the employees to respect the court verdict. Ashwaddama Reddy clarified that the strike will continue as it is but the Sadak Bandh that was planned for Tuesday will be postponed until further notice.
They have decided to meet with all center committees on Tuesday and are expected to announce collective decision by evening. Ashwaddama Reddy said that they are yet to get the full copy of the court judgement and once they procure it, they would take a legal expert opinion on the same. It may be noted that about three month salaries of all employees have been on hold and they have been continuing their fight with an iron will power despite the financial difficulties they are facing.
