CMRL staff threaten to strike work after Feb 25

CITU affiliated Chennai Metro Rail Employees Union has given notice to strike work any day after February 25 protesting the Metro management’s continuous violation of the directives of the labour department in the reinstatement of four dismissed workers and vindictive action against more than 190 workers.

Assistant labour commissioner A Jeyalakshmi, who chaired the tripartite talks comprising of the management and the union office bearers on Tuesday, has posted the next round of talks on February 22 with a direction to the CMRL to depute responsible officials for the meeting.

Employees union vice president R Elangovan said they were forced to serve the strike notice following the management’s violation of the labour commissioner’s directive to not initiate any vindictive action against those who participated in the strike in April and to consider the appeal to be filed by the office bearers of the union against their dismissal. “The management has violated both the directions and has initiated action against the workers who took part in the strike,” he said.

The management has reinstated the jobs of three out of the seven dismissed employees after they gave a written submission quitting the union, he said, adding that nine employees were suspended over the strike. Moreover, the management has served chargesheet to 191 employees for taking part in the strike and have imposed increment cut on three employees for six years, Elangovan said, adding that the management planning to impose similar cut on 54 more employees.

“The CMRL management is not bothered about the labour rights or the direction of the labour commissioner,” he alleged.

The CMRL has filed a written submission to the commission stating that the employees should not go on strike. An official of the CMRL said that they were handling the issue as per the law.