Delhi Metro staffers threaten to halt train services from Monday

Threatening to bring train services to a halt from Monday, the Delhi Metro’s non-executive staff on Saturday again raised their demands including pay hike.

The non-executive staff, which include train operators, maintenance staff, station controllers and customer relation assistants have been protesting against the management since Friday. The decision to increase their pay had come two years ago but it is still not implemented.

Secretary of staff council Anil Kumar Mahato said, “We will gather at the Yamuna Bank station on Sunday evening. Thereafter, from 0000 hours of July 24, the protesting staff of around 9,000 will enforce a total shutdown.”

Delhi Metro had in 2015 agreed, “in principle”, to upgrade pay scale of maintainers from Rs 8,000-14,410 to Rs 10,170-Rs 18,700 from July of that year. It was also decided to merge the pay scales Rs 13,500-Rs 25,520 and Rs 14,000-Rs 26,950.

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A new pay scale of Rs 20,600-Rs 46,500 was to be introduced, according to the agreement, which was decided upon following a similar employee stir, Mahato said.

However, the DMRC management responded to the acquisitions saying “Since the recommendations of the 3rd pay commission have been accepted by the government and orders are to be issued any time, it is not an opportune moment to press for their demand for revision of pay scales at this juncture. All pay related issues shall be dealt shortly after issue of orders by the government.”

Besides salary hike, the other demands of the agitating staffers include the right to form a union, suspension of disciplinary proceedings against three staff members, including Mahato and a CBI probe into alleged financial irregularities in the organisation.

Delhi Metro, in a statement, said that issues are purely incidental to the individuals and the attempt on their part to push their personal agenda, and invoke others to cause disruption is uncalled for.

“The employees have been misled by these individuals and an appeal has been issued for all employees to stay calm and we hope that employees are not misguided by such elements.  Staff council members are also called for discussion on these issues,” it added.

Since Friday, the protesting staff, wearing black bands, are gathering at metro stations across Delhi-NCR and sloganeering against the management in between their shifts. As of now, there has been no disruption in metro services.

With PTI inputs.

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