All factions of BEST wet lease bus drivers to join service today

Mumbai: All factions of wet lease bus drivers will be back in service from August 10. The worker union within BEST said there was a meeting in Dadar, attended by around 1,000 odd drivers belonging to wet lease operators who were unhappy and had not joined work.

“We held a discussion with them on this and have decided that we will ask the government to give it in writing the demands that have been assured. From Thursday, all contractual drivers will rejoin work,” said Jagmohan Gupta, BEST union leader.

The drivers of the private wet lease bus operators had been agitating over issues such as salary hikes, pay parity within BEST employees, free bus passes, and allowing paid leave, among other demands. The strike continued for a week, during that period, the BEST was dependent on their 1,300 plus owned buses as several out of the 1671 wet lease ones were off-road.

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

“In the absence of a written assurance from the government, many staffers were reluctant to resume duty,” said Vikas Kharmale, a coordinator of one of the groups of drivers of wet lease operators.

At 10am, Sunil Vaidya, the spokesperson for BEST Undertaking said the public transport undertaking operated 97.5% of the 3,040 buses in its entire fleet including the wet-leased ones. Until evening a few of the wet lease drivers from Deonar, Anik, Mulund, and a few other bus depots weren’t on duty. “By 6pm, our entire fleet of buses were on the road. We had also operated 212 MSRTC buses,” said Vaidya.

The BEST ferries more than 30 lakh commuters on its buses in Mumbai and neighbouring Thane, Navi Mumbai, and Mira-Bhayander. Lakhs of passengers had a harrowing time during the strike.