Delhi High Court restrains DMRC employees from going on strike tomorrow

Some of the non-executive staff of the DMRC have been demonstrating at a few metro stations, including Yamuna Bank and Shahdara, since June 19 in support of their eight-point demand.

image courtesy: PTI

New Delhi: Delhi High Court on Friday opposed the planned strike by non-executive staff of DMRC. The court also sent a notice to Delhi metro employees, stating that metro is a lifeline of the national capital and would affect the livelihood of lakhs of people. Delhi Metro services  were likely to get severely affected as the non-executive staff of the transporter had threatened to go on strike from Saturday if their demands are not met by then. There are nearly 12,000 people employed with the transporter, with non-executive staffers accounting for about 9,000. Some of the non-executive staff of the DMRC have also been demonstrating at a few metro stations, including Yamuna Bank and Shahdara, since June 19 in support of their eight-point demand.

Whereas all genuine demands of Metro employees shud be met, strike wud cause inconvenience to lakhs of people. Strike shud not take place. Whereas govt imposing ESMA as last resort, I wud urge employees to not resort to strike. https://t.co/kbWtkUZvCL

— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) June 29, 2018

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Staff Council had given a call to all members to join the agitation but not all have participated in the stir. The non-executive workforce includes train operators, station controllers, operations and maintenance staff and technicians, and form a major component in the operation of the rapid rail network. Some of the council members have been protesting over a number of issues, including payscale revision, modification of DMRC Staff Council as an employees union, proper guidelines for sacking of an employee and that too in extreme conditions. The council said the demands have been sent to Delhi Metro authorities and Union Urban Affairs Ministry. "Our first demand is that that the DMRC Staff Council be changed to a DMRC employees union as the council is not a constitutional body and so, it does not have any teeth. "Other demands include implementation of our Industrial Dearness Allowance (IDA) as per the 3rd pay revision scale," the council's secretary, Ravi Bhardwaj, said. A senior DMRC official, when contacted, said: "There is a possibility of services shutting down if no agreement is reached, but we are hopeful of reaching a resolution." He also claimed that during these protests over the past several days "metro services have not been affected."