The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation’s non-executive staff on Wednesday threatened to bring Metro services to a halt from June 30 if their demands pertaining to pay hike and promotions are not met.
Nearly 9,000 non-executive staff members, including train operators, maintenance staff and station controllers, have been protesting since June 19 at various depots and control rooms of the Delhi Metro.
Continuing their protest at Yamuna Bank metro station, Ravi Bhardvaz, secretary of the DMRC staff council, said, “We want our union to be recognised by the DMRC, else its purpose will stand defeated. Further, we want implementation of agreements pertaining to pay revision. This should be done immediately after a discussion with the representatives and not arbitrarily.”
Scale upgradation
Citing an agreement between the employees and the DMRC, Mr. Bhardvaz said, “As per the DMRC rules which prevailed so far, each and every employee of the organisation is promoted to the next grade after completion of five years in one grade. Howeve r, since 2017, there is no consistency maintained during upgradation of scales and employees are stuck in one grade for 10 years....it cannot be justified.”
“If there is no mandated schedule A pay scales for non-executive staff, then why was it previously agreed upon and promised by the DMRC? Such unwarranted word-twisting games must not be played with the staff, which is neither in the interest of employees nor the organisation” said Mr. Bhardvaz. Responding to the strike called by the employees, a DMRC official said, “There are some HR issues involved, which we hope will be resolved soon.”
