Mumbai, (The Hindu): The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST) has deducted 500 each from its employees’ January salaries to recover the bonus paid to them for Diwali.

BEST employees were paid a bonus of 5,500 each during Diwali. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had loaned the required funds to the BEST, based on certain conditions, after the Mayor’s intervention. The amount will now be recovered in 10 instalments.

BEST committee chairman Anil Kokil said, “Employees are very upset over this deduction. This is duplicity on part of the BMC. We have already implemented 80% of the reforms, be it reducing perks of employees, slashing staff numbers and even hiking fares.”

Shiv Sena’s BEST union leader Suhas Samant said they would ask party chief Uddhav Thackeray and leader Subhash Desai to intervene in the issue.

Jayshree Khadilkar-Pandey, president of the BEST’s Rayatraj Kamgar Sanghtana, said, “These workers put in 14-15 hours of work every day, and deserve an annual Diwali bonus. This is a deliberate ploy for privatisation of the BEST.”

She said the employees have received payslips, but not the salaries.

BEST General Manager Surendrakumar Bagde is attending a leadership course at Harvard University.