108 Ambulance workers union not to strike on Deepavali
The services provided were public utility services and thus, if there was any breach of the statutory provision, the strike will be declared illegal.
Chennai: The state government has informed the Madras high court that the members of the 108 Ambulance Workers Union will not indulge in strike on Deepavali day.
Recording the submission to this effect, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R. Mahadevan disposed of a Public Interest Litigation from S. Patrick, which sought to declare the strike to be conducted by the Union from 8 p.m. on October 28 to 8 p.m on October 29, as illegal.
The bench said, “Following the earlier order passed in 2015, the PIL is disposed of on the same terms”. When a similar strike call given by the union during last year Deepavali, one V. Meganathan challenged the same. The then government pleader had informed the Bench that conciliation proceedings were going on and thus, in terms of section 22 (i) (d) of the Industrial Disputes Act, there can be no strike during the pendency of the conciliation proceedings.
The services provided were public utility services and thus, if there was any breach of the statutory provision, the strike will be declared illegal and the government will take appropriate action to ensure that services were maintained, he had added.