Consumers Hit By Illegal Strikes In Public Service Firms Entitled

In a landmark judgment, the Maharashtra State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission here has held that an aggrieved consumer was entitled to compensation in the case of an illegal strike by the employees of an organisation which rendered public service.

The verdict was delivered on a complaint filed by the Tata Iron and Steel Company Ltd (Tisco) claiming damages to the tune of Rs 9.96 lakh from the Maharashtra Mathadi Unprotected Labour Board, a registered body representing Mathadi workers in Nagpur.

As many as 33 railway wagons containing steel material were despatched by the complainant company from Tatanagar for Itwari, Nagpur.

 

Although the goods were delivered by the Railways at the Itwari railway station, the material could not be unloaded because of an illegal strike by labourers of the Mathadi board.

Subsequently, the company was unable to sell the goods, and the only alternative before it was to despatch the goods to other places for which it footed freight charges of Rs 9.47 lakh in re-booking, besides bearing demurrage expenditure of Rs 49,527.

A three-member bench of the commission, headed by Justice A A Halbe, ordered the Mathadi board to pay Rs 9.96 lakh to Tata Iron & Steel Co (Tisco) within eight weeks and Rs 5,000 as costs to its lawyers J M Baphna and H N Vakil.