Salary delay disrupts BEST bus services at Mumbai's Poisar depot

Only 10 of the 29 buses based at BEST’s Poisar depot were operating on Friday morning after contract drivers stopped work over delayed salary payments.

The drivers are employed by a sub-contractor of TSSL. BEST deployed its own drivers to run 10 buses, while the remaining services were affected until the pending salaries were credited in the afternoon.

At a BEST committee meeting, member Ajay Singh said BEST releases nearly 70% of a contractor’s bill as an interim payment on or before the seventh of each month. He said contractors should use the payment to ensure that drivers and other employees receive their salaries by the seventh, including an approved interim salary increase of Rs 2,000 for drivers.

Singh said delays between the main operator and the sub-contractor were affecting workers’ pay and bus operations. He said this was the second disruption at Poisar depot in two months after PMI began operations there.