#RTCStrike: KCR repeated Jayalalithaa

The sacking of 48,000 employees from TSRTC at one go by Telangana CM KCR was a sensational decision. RTC employees have intensified their protests all over the state yet the government is stubborn and gave clear instructions to all the depot managers across the state to not to take back the employees who were on strike.

But is KCR’s decision to sack 48,000 a valid one? Legal experts too have divided opinion on this. While saying that it is not possible to terminate such huge number of employees at a time, they added that under Essential Services Maintenance (ESMA), the sacking is valid.

This episode reminds us of late Jayalalithaa who too dismissed 1.70 Lakh RTC employees back in 2003 in Tamil Nadu. But later the employees went to Supreme Court and with court’s intervention, they got back their jobs. But Jayalalithaa had the upper hand as she made TN RTC employees sign a paper that they would never do strikes again.

Looks like KCR is going to do what Jayalalithaa had done about 16 years back. But we can’t rule out chances that KCR will stick to his decision and recruit new staff where employees will have to sign a bond paper that has many terms and conditions.