Delhi Metro employees call off Monday strike after series of meetings

A crisis was averted after a series of meetings between the Delhi Metro’s staff council, DMRC’s top officials, Delhi government officials and the secretary at the ministry of urban development.

Metro trains in the Capital will run as usual on Monday, with employees of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) calling off their strike.

Delhi Metro employees had been holding demonstrations at various platforms to raise their demands. (HT File Photo)

“The ongoing protest by DMRC’s non-executive employees was called off today after all the issues raised by the agitating employees were amicably settled following many rounds of meetings and deliberations with DMRC’s managing director, Dr. Mangu Singh and other senior officials,” said Anuj Dayal, chief spokesperson at DMRC.

“In light of the above, the Delhi Metro services will continue as per schedule tomorrow (Monday),” he added.

The announcement came after the corporation agreed to the demands of its protesting non-executive employees that included revising their salary slabs. The DMRC has around 9,000 non-executive staff who perform important duties of train operators, station in-charge, traffic controllers, technicians, maintenance and so on.

These employees had been protesting by holding sit-ins at various platforms over the past three days. On Monday, they had threatened to shut all metro services by not reporting to work.

However, the crisis was averted after a series of meetings held over the weekend between the Metro’s staff council, DMRC’s top officials, Delhi government officials and the secretary at the ministry of urban development.

“The issue was also deliberated in detail yesterday (Saturday) in a high-level meeting chaired by secretary MoUD, DS Mishra and Delhi chief secretary Dr MM Kutty with DMRC’s MD,” Dayal said.

At DMRC, the basic pay of non-executive staff varies from Rs 8,000 to Rs 18,500, while that of an executive staff member is above Rs 20,600. For over two years, protesters have been demanding that the slab of Rs 8,000 be done away with and the entry salary of non-executive employees be upgraded to Rs 10,170.