4000 ex-employees of BEST haven’t received gratuity for over 1 year

Nearly 4000 ex-employees of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST) have not received their gratuity for the last one and half-year. The members of the Bharatiya Janata Party moved an adjournment motion on Friday for not giving the gratuity to the ex-employees and staged a walkout from the meeting.

The committee chairman, Ashish Chemburkar, made several attempts to pacify the the BJP leader Sunil Ganacharya to withdraw his motion but Ganacharya demanded to vote on his motion. But, the motion was rejected as the Shiv Sena has a majority. Ganacharya said that to clear the gratuity, the BEST needs Rs 320 crore which means the retired employees of BEST are forced to wait till the BEST arranges for funds to clear the backlog.

“As per payment of gratuity Act 1972, after the retirement of a BEST employee, his dues along with gratuity should be calculated and given to him. Targeting on BEST administration, he said that the BEST administration is not serious over the clearing of the gratuity of former employees. This attitude of the administration is also hampering the current employees who are expected to retire in next couple of months,” said Ganacharya.

The Leader of Opposition in the BMC and member of BEST committee Ravi Raja said that instead of having a discussion over the issue, the administration needs to come up with a solution. “Does administration has any action plan to resolve this issue,” said Raja.

While replying to the proposal, Surendra Bagde, General Manager of BEST said that the gratuity would be given in instalment. For which, the administration will either have to take a loan or borrow the money from the BMC.