LUCKNOW
Even amidst boycott calls by employees’ union, the Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) has held its ground by refusing to cancel (or postpone) the transfer orders given to two bus operators, including a driver and a conductor, who allegedly refused to carry out orders and also misbehaved with a station master.
In this regard, Manoj Pundhir, the regional manager of UPSRTC, on Saturday, wrote a letter to the UP Roadways Employees’ Union. According to Pundhir, after the two bus operators disobeyed direct orders from a station master and misbehaved with her, and did not leave the depot for duty, orders were given to transfer them to different districts. However, the operators, along with the rest of the Union members, moved for a withdrawal of these orders, threatening to stage a boycott.
“In the last week of May, one of our station in-charges, Radha Pradhan, asked two of our operators to start for Ayodhya at 1 am. This was a bus from Gorakhpur which routinely ran post-midnight. When she returned at 4 am, she saw that the bus had not yet left. In fact, the bus had not budged from the depot till 8 am, which is when the shift ends,” said Pundhir. He added that the driver and conductor in question also misbehaved with the station in-charge.
“When they threatened to carry out a boycott, I wrote the letter back to the Union, clearly stating the reasons why we would not be accepting their demands -- boycott or not,” said Pundhir. The first reason being that there was a case of misconduct by the driver and conductor; secondly, we found no misconduct or oversight made on the part of the station manager, Radha Pradhan. Moreover, the UPSRTC has a rule that any communication with the Union will be done with the leader alone -- this particular Union has been dealing with in-fighting and groupism, leaving them without a leader. This makes negotiations difficult; and most importantly, the state government had a few months earlier issued an order declaring that for six months, no boycotts or strikes will be organised, and that period is still ongoing, he added.
{{/usCountry}}“When they threatened to carry out a boycott, I wrote the letter back to the Union, clearly stating the reasons why we would not be accepting their demands -- boycott or not,” said Pundhir. The first reason being that there was a case of misconduct by the driver and conductor; secondly, we found no misconduct or oversight made on the part of the station manager, Radha Pradhan. Moreover, the UPSRTC has a rule that any communication with the Union will be done with the leader alone -- this particular Union has been dealing with in-fighting and groupism, leaving them without a leader. This makes negotiations difficult; and most importantly, the state government had a few months earlier issued an order declaring that for six months, no boycotts or strikes will be organised, and that period is still ongoing, he added.
{{/usCountry}}So far, no response has come in from the Union as to whether or not they will go through with conducting the workers’ strike. “I, for my part, have clearly said that the demands they are making are baseless on all counts, and if they do end up staging the boycott, we will be forced to take adequate action against them,” said Pundhir.