New duty schedule leaving BEST staffers overworked: Union to Bombay High Court

Urvi Mahajani @urvijm

The BEST Workers' Union has claimed that the new duty schedule that have implemented at Malad bus depot on a trial basis is leaving its members overworked. In an affidavit filed in the Bombay High Court on Wednesday, the union said drivers and conductors at the depot are now working for over 12 hours.

An affidavit was also filed by one conductor, Sanjay Pote, stating that he has to work more than 12 hours as per the new schedule.

The HC had on April 11 had asked the union not to go on strike over the issue. The court had asked the staffers to air their grievances through an affidavit, if any, after trying out the new system for a couple of days.

Earlier in the day, advocate Neeta Karnik, who is representing the union, said that apart from putting in more work, the drivers and conductors are not getting the rest hours as proposed in the new system.

The BEST counsel said that the transport undertaking would be filing its affidavit in the course of the day.

Justice Nitin Jamdar kept the petition by workers' union for hearing on Thursday. The union had filed the petition on April 11, a day before the BEST was to implement the new duty schedule.

The BEST bus drivers and conductors had gone on mass leave on April 1 and 2 in protest to the new system. They had resumed work only after a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between them and the management that the new system would be first tried at the Malad depot from April 7 and then implemented in other depots from June 1 after considering the shortfalls.