{
  "id": 5368208,
  "title": "Mumbai: BEST Wage Revision To Cost ₹1,111 Crore Annually; Wet-Lease Pay Parity Alone ₹475 Crore",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/03/mumbai-best-wage-revision-to-cost-1-111-crore-annually-wet-lease-pay",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-03T16:19:23.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Free Press Journal",
    "slug": "free-press-journal",
    "url": "https://www.freepressjournal.in/mumbai/mumbai-best-wage-revision-to-cost-1111-crore-annually-wet-lease-pay-parity-alone-475-crore"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Mumbai, September 3, 2026: The proposed wage revision for BEST employees and wet-lease staff could increase the company's annual salary expenses by Rs 1,111 crore. Of this, Rs 475 crore would be needed each year to provide wet-lease workers, who number over 9,000, with salaries comparable to BEST's permanent staff. The proposal, approved at a recent BEST Committee meeting, will now be submitted to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the state government's Study Committee for evaluation. Around 38,200 BEST employees and workers will be affected. Approximately 27,000 regular employees are set to receive a wage adjustment linked to the 7th Pay Commission, creating a potential arrears liability of Rs 6,000 crore. An additional Rs 300 crore may be required to determine notional pay for around 2,200 casual workers who were employed in regular positions since March 2016. The wet-lease pay parity proposal is politically important, as it addresses longstanding demands of unions representing contractual workers. Around 9,000 wet-lease workers are to receive wages equivalent to permanent BEST employees. The state government has agreed to the need for pay parity. The strike called by BEST Sanyukt Kamgar Kruti Samiti in June over wage issues and conditions for contractual workers was resolved after negotiations. The recommendations for pay levels under the 7th Pay Commission are based on legal opinions from the state's Law and Judiciary Department and the Maharashtra Contract Labour Rules, 1971.",
  "summary": "Mumbai, September 3, 2026: The proposed wage revision for BEST employees and wet-lease workers could add Rs 1,111 crore a year to the undertaking's salary bill, even as BEST is already dependent on borrowings to meet its wage obligations. Of this, Rs 475 crore annually will be required to bring around 9,000 wet-lease workers—more than 7,000 of them drivers—on a pay scale equivalent to BEST's…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}