Contractual staff of BSES defer strike after order

Contractual employees of power distribution companies BSES Rajdhani and BSES Yamuna agreed to defer their proposed indefinite strike for the time being after the Delhi high court asked the two discoms to “hear them out”.

Observing that “everything will come to a standstill if electricity was disrupted” in the national capital, Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva asked the contractual employees to defer their strike, slated from August 22, till the government decides whether to impose ESMA or not.

The court said that August 20 and 21 were holidays and a decision by the lieutenant-governor on wh-ether to impose Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) would take time.

The judge said that deferring of the strike would also give the court some time to adjudicate the discoms’ plea seeking directions to the government to invoke ESMA.

The court further said, “Can you put the entire public to risk Hospitals, airport, schools will not get power. Everything will come to a standstill.”

“You can go on strike a week or 10 days later. What is so sacrosanct about August 22,” it asked.

The lawyer for the contractual employees then told the court the strike would be deferred if the discoms called them for negotiations, to which BSES Rajdhani and Yamu-na agreed. The court fixed August 22 for holding meetings between the two parties.