Bengaluru Namma Metro staff postpone strike by one month

Bengaluru’s Namma Metro has not even finished one year of its full-stream functioning but facing teething problems with the staff, most of them are recruited on temporary basis, demanding a better deal and threatening to go on strike from Thursday.

They have agreed to defer their strike by a month as BMRCL has offered talks.

Currently, the state-run Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) which runs Namma Metro has 900 contract employees.
The state government had invoked ESMA when a section of the staff went on a flash strike on July 8, 2017 disrupting the service leaving thousands of commuters stranded on a working day.

Later the Karnataka High Court has issued a stay on ESMA, which has come up for hearing now. On Tuesday, the company has told the court that it would consider the demands of the employees.

"We have agreed to defer the strike to mid-April to enable the management consider our demands, including recognition to our union and service issues," metro union leader Suryanarayana Murthy said in Bengaluru. "As the court has not vacated its stay on imposing ESMA on us, we reserve the right to go on strike next month if our demands are not met by the company," he added.

The court has directed the management to hold talks with the union leaders and avoid any disruption to the metro service in Bengaluru.

Namma Metro, formed ten years ago, is operating metro rail services on the 42km east-west and north-south corridors of the city for 18 hours daily. Nearly three lakh people travel by Namma Metro daily, mostly women and children.