BEST fail to pay gratuity to retired employees since 2016

Around 4,000 people who have retired from the BEST since 2016 are yet to receive gratuity, and many of them are in such financial crisis that they have been forced to postpone weddings of their children as they were banking on gratuity amount to meet the expenses.

Things have come to such a pass that Shiv Sena corporator Ashish Chemburkar, who is the BEST Committee chairperson, that the undertaking sell some of its properties to pay gratuity to its former employees, numbering 3,750.

“Former drivers, conductors, and even officers haven’t been paid. This is unfair, and it has to be rectified at the earliest,” Chemburkar said.

The BEST has been incurring an annual loss of around Rs 900 crore for the last couple of fiscals, with its fleet of 3,337 buses, including 120 double-deckers, failing to recover even the cost of operation. The BEST buses once ferried around 45 lakh passengers every day, but the number has come down to around 29 lakh passengers a day.

Mumbai Mirror conducted a debate on the future of BEST, after the BMC commissioner, Ajoy Mehta, hinted that he was not keen to bail out cash-bleeding BEST any further.

One of the retired BEST staffers this newspaper spoke to, said his son had to forgo admission at a prestigious management college due to lack of funds. “I had estimated that the gratuity would be paid within a year. I have slipped into depression because my son will not be able to study at the college of his choice,” he said.


Gratuity is basically a reward for loyalty, eligible to be paid to those employees who have completed a continuous service of at least five years. In BEST’s case, employees who are due to retire in the next few months are now worried about their future.

While the BEST’s general manager Surendra Bagde did not respond to calls and messages, the undertaking sources said the only way former employees can be paid their dues is by taking a loan from BMC, something that will not be an easy procedure considering Ajoy Mehta’s reluctance to repeatedly bail out BEST. Recently, the BEST Committee requested the BMC to sanction a Rs 5,000-crore zero interest loan to the BEST, which was turned down.


Chemburkar pointed out that Diwali was less than a month away, and former BEST employees were made to run from pillar to post for money that is rightfully theirs. “I have repeatedly taken up the matter with the BEST GM and the BMC chief but there appears to be no solution in sight. Why can’t they monetise the vacant plots owned by the BEST?” Chemburkar asked.