A day-long re-conciliation meeting on Monday between the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) and BMRCL employees’ union, mediated by the Assistant Labour Commissioner (Central) on Monday, failed to reach a consensus between the two parties. In the end, the union stayed put on its plan to go on a strike on March 22.
Mahendra Jain, MD, BMRCL, said the management is ready for talks as directed by the Regional Labour Commissioner’s office (Central) provided the employees’ union withdraws the strike call. “We are ready for talks with the employees and attend to demands which are reasonable. In the interest of the general public, they should withdraw the strike call,” he said, adding that the matter of recognition of the union is pending before the high court for adjudication.
He said that BMRCL has made alternate arrangements to maintain services in the event of a strike by its employees and the management would not hesitate to take action against employees who join the strike.
The BMRCL has argued before the reconciliation officer that there is no provision under the rules to recognise the union.
On the other hand, the union maintained that it will go ahead with an indefinite strike from March 22 as Monday's talks failed. But the BMRCL is likely to meet the union members on March 21.
Vice-president of the union, Suryanarayana Murthy, said, “On Monday, two rounds of meetings were held. In the morning meeting, BMRCL representatives agreed to fulfil certain demands, but made a complete U-turn in the evening. As none of our demands were met, we have no option but to resort to the strike as scheduled.”
The union’s demands include recognition to the union, ending wage disparity, and framing standing orders.
In the project wing of the BMRCL, 607 employees are working on contract basis. In operations and maintenance (O&M wing), about 1,230 employees are working on permanent basis and 257 on contract basis.
‘Loss-making company’
BMRCL, on the other hand, in its statement of objections submitted before the conciliation officer and assistant labour commissioner (central), said that the BMRCL has been incurring losses. Till the financial year ending March 31, 2017, it incurred a loss of ₹457.88 crore. For the year 2017-18, the loss estimation is ₹513 crore.
Reasoning why it is not in a position to fulfil demands of wage revision, the BMRCL said that it will be an additional burden on the State government and parity has to be maintained between salaries of State government employees and BMRCL employees.
The BMRCL made a submission that it has borrowed a huge loan to implement the project. “The BMRCL estimates its debt obligations for phase I to be approximately ₹480 crore per annum till 2041-42 to service the senior debt component of ₹5,689.49 crore borrowed for Phase I. After which, BMRCL is obliged to repay sub-debt of ₹ 4,167.50 crore (at approximately ₹208.37 crore per annum).”
