The Tamil Nadu Transport Union, which had been staging daily protests to press for the signing of the 15th wage revision agreement in order to raise wages and fill positions for bus drivers and conductors, decided to end their stand on Wednesday. The Centre of Indian Trade Union (CITU), Anna Thozhir Sangam Peravai, and other labor unions stated in the Madras High Court that their members must report for duty in the public interest and call off their strike until January 19, when the Labour Commissioner will hold conciliation talks.
“The High Court has given an order to temporarily withdraw the strike by the Trade Union. After the meeting on 19, we will take a decision. For the past two days, there was no problem because of the strike,” Tamil Nadu Transport Minister S S Sivashankar said to ANI after the Transport Union announced withdrawal of the strike in the Madras High Court.
Chief Justice Sanjay V Gangapurwala and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy of the Madras High Court earlier on Wednesday expressed concern over the bus strike and asked the state government and the Labourers Union to sort out the issue keeping the public interest in mind.
The Madras High Court Chief Justice’s bench on Wednesday heard a PIL plea which was filed by a student from Chennai in which it was suggested to declare the ongoing bus strike illegal.
The Transport Union’s demands also included releasing the dearness allowance (DA) of Rs 6,000 per month for retired workers, which has been on hold for the last eight years.
Earlier in the day, CITU State president A Soundararajan claimed that the state government is “playing politics.”