30 HRTC union leaders sacked

Tribune News Service

Shimla, June 16

The government today invoked the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) that forbids employees to go on strike after the HRTC ordered the dismissal of 30 members of the Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) of HRTC employee unions for observing strike on June 14 defying High Court orders.

The 44-member JCC refused to comment on ESMA and dismissal of its members, saying that the matter was pending before the High Court.

“We have not received the order from the HRTC and the Transport Department. We are not aware about the dismissal of 30 employees. We respect the High Court order and seek justice for our genuine demands”, said JCC members.

On the other hand, Principal Secretary, Transport, Sanjay Gupta said the ESMA notification had been issued and it had come into force today.

HRTC employees neither could go on strike, nor could they force others to do so as ESMA provides punishment for three-year jail, warned managing director, HRTC, Ashok Tiwari.

Transport Minister GS Bali said he met Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and briefed him about the latest position that had arisen following the strike. “The HRTC management has ordered the dismissal of 30 JCC members following the court order”, he told mediapersons.

Bali said he was hurt that the HRTC had to dismiss 30 JCC members. The dismissed employees could seek justice from the High Court where they also faced contempt proceedings, he added.

Though Bali claimed the HRTC had redressed and paid most of the arrears, including pension, to its retired employees till May 2016, he remained non-committal about the payment of HRTC liability worth Rs 150 crore for 2008-12 and blamed it on the previous BJP government.

HRTC employees said the HRTC management was trying to run the transport by hiring drivers and contractors on contract and 6,500 employees are on contract. “The contractual driver gets Rs 6,000 per month while conductor Rs 4,000. We demand Rs 8,310 for drivers and Rs 7,810 for conductors only while the state government has hiked salaries and perks of MLAs and ministers by 100 per cent at one go”, they pointed out.

The HRTC should be upgraded to roadways as was the case in Punjab and Haryana because Himachal followed neighbouring states in pay scale for all government employees and HRTC employees should be treated on a par with them, said JCC members.

Bali said if these demands were accepted, the state would be put under high financial burden of Rs 1,000 crore.