The Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) Employees’ Union has filed a writ petition in the Madras High Court seeking a direction to the State government and the Commissioner of Labour to initiate criminal action under the Industrial Disputes Act of 1947 against CMRL MD and other top officials for allegedly initiating vindictive action against the members of the union.
Justice S.M. Subramaniam on Monday ordered notices to the government, Labour Commissioner as well as the MD and other officials of CMRL on the petition filed by the employees’ union represented by its president A. Soundararajan of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU).
In an affidavit, the union said 254 employees in the cadre of technician, train operator, station controller and junior engineer were recruited by CMRL in 2013 and 2014. All these employees were getting 30% of their basic pay towards house rent allowance (HRA) and 35% towards cafeteria allowance which was inclusive of education, transport, washing and medical allowances.
While revising the pay from January 1, 2017, CMRL reduced the HRA from 30% to 24% took away the cafeteria allowance totally. This led to the non-executive cadre employees losing ₹8,960 to ₹15,580 a month though the HRA was reduced from 30% to 24% and the cafeteria allowance was reduced from 35% to 20% for those working in the executive cadre.By a circular of July 21, 2018, CMRL withdrew benefits such as 15 days paternity leave and 20 days of half pay leave. These measures led to protests and the formation of the trade union.
After the CITU began taking up the cause of the employees, the management first suspended and then eventually dismissed seven of the union office-bearers from service.
Even as conciliation proceedings were pending before the Assistant Commissioner of Labour and an appeal having been preferred by the seven office-bearers against their dismissal, the management had suspended nine more workers and issued chargesheets to 15 more workmen in connection with a strike, the union said and sought permission for prosecuting the top brass.
