Bus facility to Staff

Maheshwari Public School is a reputed CBSE affiliated +2 schools in Jaipur. It is the only boys school in the city with a strength of 3000 + and nearly 143 staff members. Jaipur city is situated in a radius of 21 Km. and students & teachers from all part of the city come to this school. The school management has given the facility that teachers who are on the bus route may avail the bus facility. The bus has to reach the school by 8.00 a.m. and the stoppage has been fixed accordingly.

One day Ms. Subhara, a senior most Mathematics teacher arrived at his regular stoppage of Birla Temple, just then the bus started leaving the spot. Sh e called out to the driver to stop the bus. The bus did not stop and left the place. The teacher missed the bus and could reach the school some how by some other mode of transport. She was late to the school by one hour. She was very much agitated and went directly to the Principal and complained to him that the driver deliberately avoided her and did not pick her up. She also said that the driver knew that she was taking the bus from the same point every day. The teacher further complained that she being a senior teacher of an order in the hierarchy, instructed a worker to do a job and he did not obey. She felt that a worker insulted her and the culprit should be severely punished.

The Principal also felt that this was an insubordination and took sympathy with the teacher. He asked the teacher to give the complaint in writing and requested the Administrative Officer to conduct a preliminary enquiry to establish a prima-facie case. There after, a charge sheet was issued to the driver of the said bus. As the reply was not satisfactory, a domestic enquiry was conducted. In the enquiry, the driver, Mr. Dina Ram, presented as an ‘Exhibit’ a notice issued by the Administrative Officer which read as follows: “In case of any emergency, while the bus is running, the driver of the bus should get an instruction from the senior most staff traveling in the same bus. Other staff members traveling in the bus should not instruct the driver as it will lead to confusion.” The bus drivers report to the Administrative Officer. The notice was addressed to the bus drivers, with copies to all staff members about two years ago. The issuance of the notice became necessary, as there were confusing instructions to the drivers from various teachers resulting in the late arrival of buses. The drivers made a representation to the Administrative Officer and requested him to find out a solution to this problem. The drivers were also further told to maintain strictly the timings taking care of fixed stoppages. They were also informed that since there will not be any conductor they need not take any instruction from any of the traveling teachers and should adhere to the notice strictly regarding the fixed timings and stoppages.

However, in case of any emergency, either to skip any stoppage or to stop the bus or detain for some time due to traffic jams or for any other reason, the senior most teacher traveling in the bus was authorized to instruct the driver. Here in this case, according to the driver, the senior most teachers were one Mr. D. D. Pathak and he did not instruct him anything. Mr. Dina Ram further stated that he had no business to take instructions from any other. He did his duty sincerely as per the duty schedule and by taking guidance of the notice issued by Administrative Officer. He said that he was right and did not do any misconduct. On the request of the driver, Mr. D.D. Pathak attended the enquiry as a witness and said that as he was discussing seriously in the bus with his counterpart Mr. Sandeep Sandilya about the performance of a student, he could not pay any attention to this matter. The Administrative Officer also attended the enquiry on the request of driver and confirmed the issuance of the said notice.

In the enquiry, the charge leveled against the driver was not proved.

After going through the enquiry report, the Principal, however, felt that the driver should get some punishment in order to discipline other drivers as well. By doing so, he wanted to satisfy Ms. Subhara, to some extent. The Principal, therefore, took a decision to suspend the driver for one day. The driver was accordingly suspended for a day. The driver was unhappy and went to the Chairman who decided that charge was not proved in the enquiry and the punishment should be withdrawn. The Principal had to cancel the punishment and the suspension was withdrawn.

The driver was also paid back his deducted wage.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:

1. Was it wrong on the part of school to introduce any facility for the benefit of their teachers, which may not be directly linked to teaching but may result in problems like this?
2. Was there any communication problem in this case?
3. Some Senior Teachers in School have some superiority complex problems. How can one combat this?
4. If no punishment was awarded to the driver, what could have been the alternative? (Without issuing a Charge Sheet)