Delhi HC stays DMRC strike citing hardship to 2.5 mn commuters

Says staff council's notice 6 weeks before strike insufficient, conciliation still in progress

The Delhi High Court has put a stay on the indefinite strike proposed by the employees of Delhi Metro Rail Corp from June 30 onward seeking pay revision, modification of the DMRC staff council and proper guidelines for sacking employees.

The high court in its order said that halting services of a public utility that caters to 2.5 million people, largely from the middle income group, would cause a lot of inconvenience.

It observed that the staff council did not provide sufficient notice, six weeks before the strike, and the conciliation proceedings were still in progress.

Had the 9,000-odd employees of the DMRC gone ahead with the strike, it would have been the first such strike by the authority.

The workforce consisting of non-executive staff, including train operators, technicians and maintenance staff, had been protesting since June 19.

The staff demands also include changing DMRC Staff Council to an employees union as the council is not a constitutional body. 

Other demands are implementation of Industrial Dearness Allowance (IDA) as per the third pay revision scale. The demands have been sent to Delhi Metro authorities and the Union Urban Affairs Ministry.

The court has restrained the staff council from going on strike till further orders.