Nagpur: The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) has decided to give fresh appointment to 1,010 sacked employees who participated in the two-day flash strike on June 8 and 9.
“The decision was taken after transport minister Diwakar Raote issued orders to this effect. The MSRTC employees’ union leaders had also represented Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on the issue,” said assistant public relations officer (APRO) Abhijeet Bhosale, Mumbai.
These employees included assistants, clerks, conductors, drivers among others. They were appointed two months ago. On Monday, the MSRTC issued a circular giving fresh appointment to all the sacked employees from July 1, 2018.
“This means their earlier service period will not be counted and will not get any pending dues. They will be treated as newly recruited employees,” said Bhosale.
Sandeep Shinde, president of Maharashtra ST Kamgar Sanghatana, Mumbai, welcomed the decision to restore the services of all terminated employees.
Shinde said, “Giving fresh appointment from July 1, is not acceptable. Our demand is to reinstate all the sacked employees from their original date of employment. We will pursue the matter with the management.”
Shinde added even as the terminated employees have been granted a relief, the management did not fulfil its promise to revoke suspension of over 400 permanent employees who took part in the two-day strike.
In Vidarbha, services of over 35 employees were terminated. All will be reinstated now. Nagpur divisional controller Ashok Warthe said, “In our division, only two employees were terminated. We have received orders to reinstate them.”
A section of affected staffers blamed union leaders for instigating them to participate in the strike. “The number of employees whose services have been terminated is low in the region as no action was taken against employees affiliated to the recognized union,” they said.
A meeting between sanghatana leaders and MSRTC management has been called on June 27 in Mumbai to discuss Rs4,849 crore wage hike proposal calculated by the recognized unions.