“The Chennai Metro Rail Management refuses to adhere to the labour department’s advice and implement labour welfare acts. The Metro management is taking vindictive action on the employees if they questioned the appointment of untrained workers in the posts of permanent employees which could endanger the safety of the commuters,” Rangarajan tweeted. In another tweet, he said that they had raised these issues with the Chief Minister.

“CITU state president A Soundararajan also raised other labour related issues in the state. “The Chief Minister has promised to take appropriate action after enquiring into the issues,” he added.

The employees of CMRL has issued a strike notice on February 8 after the management failed to keep its promises following the strike in April 2019. The CITU has raised the Metro employees issue after holding three rounds of talks with the management in the presence of the assistant labour commissioner.

On Thursday, the union members tried to hold a protest near CMRL headquarters and submit a memorandum. Seven workers were dismissed from work, nine permanent workers are still under suspension and many have been issued with show-cause notices for participating in the strike. The action was taken during conciliation time and was hence invalid, the workers claim.