Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:
The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court comprising Justice Ravindra Ghuge and Justice Y G Khobragade quashed the decision taken by the Bank of Maharashtra (Bom) management to stop the office bearers of All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) from negotiating with the management if they retire from the service.
As a result, the door of negotiation was opened for the retired elected office-bearers of the bank employees association.
The bench struck down a clause of the bank's Industrial Relations Code Rules and accepted the union's arguments, opening the door for negotiations for the retired elected office-bearers under the provisions of the Trade union Act.
The management of BoM implemented an 'Industrial Relations Code in 2019 with the approval of the Board of Directors.
As per the provisions of the code, if the elected officers-bearers of the organisation retired from the service of the bank, they were barred from negotiating with the management.
This decision was challenged in the Aurangabad bench of HC.
The AIBEA joint secretary Devidas Tuljapurkar filed a petition in the HC bench in January 2021 objecting that the bank management was trying to suppress the voice that was opposing the wrong policy of the management.
However, the hearing was delayed due to Covid.
After hearing the arguments of both sides, the bench recently made the above decision.
Adv Uday Bopshetty appeared for the Association while Senior Advocate Sudhir Talsania and adv Ajay Deshpande were present for bank management.