Government transport workers, who were on strike demanding fulfillment of their 8-year-old demands, have agreed to postpone the strike till the 19th.

The strike was called off after the Madras High Court intervened and asked the workers to consider the public interest.

The workers had been demanding a pay raise, implementation of the old pension scheme, and payment of pension benefits to retired workers. The government had rejected these demands.

On January 9, the workers began a strike, disrupting public transportation across the state.

A student named Paul Gideon filed a petition in the Madras High Court seeking a stay on the strike.

The case came up for hearing before a bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Bharath Chakravarthy on January 10.

The government’s counsel, Additional Advocate General J. Ravindranath, argued that the strike was illegal as it was not in accordance with the Industrial Disputes Act.

The trade union’s counsel argued that the strike was necessary to pressurize the government to meet their demands.

The judges then asked the government to consider paying the pension benefits to the retirees for the month of January.

The government agreed to consider the request and asked the workers to postpone the strike till January 19.

The trade unions agreed to the proposal and the strike was called off.

The judges also ordered the government to allow the workers to return to work without any disciplinary action.