Delhi Metro staff threaten to stall services

New Delhi: The Delhi Metro’s non-executive staff, including train operators, maintenance staff, station controllers and customer relation assistants, on Saturday threatened to bring train services to a halt from Monday if their demands, including a pay hike, were not met. As of now, there has been no disruption in the train services.

The staff have been protesting since Friday against the management’s failure in implementing a two-year-old decision to upgrade their pay scales.

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

“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,” secretary of staff council Anil Kumar Mahato said.

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

“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,” the DMRC management responded.

After staff’s protest on April 17 and June 2, DMRC issued a show-cause notice to 15 staff, including the secretary of the staff council, Anil Kumar Mahato and also cancelled their annual increments.

Several Metro stations, including Shahdara, Dwarka, Badarpur, Yamuna Bank, Qutub Minar and Vishwavidyalaya, were affected due to sit-ins. DMRC, however, has maintained that the protesting staff has no effect on the operations.