Mumbai: Our salary is chillar, say BEST staff

BEST Undertaking is paying its employees in loose change due to the COVID-19 crisis. The organisation that often has loads of loose change has been having a problem depositing it with the banks. The staff under quarantine has also complained that they cannot come to the depots to collect the amount and are helpless.

The process of salary disbursal for May began on Monday. The money is being kept in sacks ferried on wheel-barrows and given to employees in pouches. "Of the total salary amount, a sum of R5,000 is being disbursed at bus depots (R4,000 in currency notes of R20 and R100 and R1,000 in coins). The rest of the salary is going to respective accounts," a bus conductor said. "I got coins of R5,000 as part of my salary. But it becomes difficult to use it. The BEST is a big government body and they have the means to exchange money at some level; we do not have any," a bus driver said.

BEST Kamgar Sanghatana general secretary Jagnayaran Kahar said the staff have been working hard at a time when local trains are shut. Inconveniencing them like this is unfair. In the absence of local trains, BEST buses had become the sole lifeline of the city ferrying essential workers.

The BEST spokesperson said just a part of the salary was being disbursed in change so that it is not left stagnant with the undertaking.

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