Now, Mumbai’s monorail employees threaten to go on strike

In a letter to the metropolitan commissioner and Maharashtra CM, employees of Mumbai monorail have threatened to strike if they do not get answers to their demands by January 10.

Even as Mumbaiites continue to be hassled with the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) staff strike, the employees of Mumbai monorail have threatened to go on strike if the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) does not clarify its stance on their demands.

Mumbai monorail employees have threatened to go on a strike, if the authorities do not clarify stance on their demands. (Kunal Patil/HT File)

In a letter to the metropolitan commissioner and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, the employees have threatened to strike if they do not get answers to their demands by January 10. The employees have demanded their salaries on time and have sought clarity on increments, gratuity, medical insurance, leaves and compensatory offs.

RA Rajeev, metropolitan commissioner, said, “They will be paid. No one will remain unpaid. They need not go on strike. Have they ever gone on strike under Scomi — its previous operator — even when they were not getting salaries for months?”

In December 2018, MMRDA terminated its contract with LTSE (a consortium of L&T and Scomi Engineering) over “contractual failures.”

The MMRDA, however, took over the operations by including the same employees working for the contractor. The MMRDA had said that it would employ a thirdparty contractor for acquiring the 198 employees. However, the employees have stated that they have not been informed about the benefits or liabilities of this contract. They have also stated that they have not received a single increment in four years and their “expectation from MMRDA is that their salaries will be credited to their accounts on time.”

The letter stated, “MMRDA (has) failed to provide a clear picture of the future of Monorail employees if they continue to support the project. We are only being given baseless hopes of being inducted into MMOCL.”

MMRDA has set up the Mumbai Metro Operation Corporation Limited (MMOCL) to look into the operation and maintenance of the Metro and monorail. The threat comes at a time when MMRDA is looking at initiating the operations of phase-2 of the monorail, till Jacob Circle. Currently, only phase-1 between Chembur and Wadala is functional.