Mumbai: Strike over but many employees of private operators of BEST still to rejoin

Many contractual staffers had yet to return to work on Wednesday morning, a day after those representing Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST)  employees declared that their weeklong strike had been called off.

Sunil Vaidya, a spokesperson of the BEST undertaking, said that about 85 per cent of their wet-leased buses were being run with the drivers of private bus operators. At 10 am, Vaidya said, the public transporter operated 97.5 per cent of the 3,040 buses in its fleet including the wet-leased ones and BEST-owned buses.

While Vaidya claimed that the employees of the private bus operators have rejoined at all bus depots, he did not specify their exact numbers. Soon, 100 per cent of the buses are expected to be operated by the employees of private bus operators, he said. BEST undertaking, which provides public bus services in Mumbai and neighbouring areas, has hired more than 1,600 buses from some contractors on a wet lease model, under which the vehicle ownership, maintenance, fuel and driver costs are the responsibility of the private operator.

On Tuesday afternoon, those representing the agitating contractual employees announced that their strike, which started on August 2, had been called off after a meeting with Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday night.