Accordingly at the risk of disrupting the metro services, around 130 employees of Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) are on a sit in protest in front of its Managing Director’s office, demanding a meeting with him. Reportedly the sit in strike is due to the company’s decision to dismiss eight employees for allegedly supporting a letter written to the company by Soundararajan, the State President of CITU (Centre of Indian Trade Unions) in November 2018.
When speaking to TNM, Vasanth*, an employee of the company and one of the participants in the strike, said that the permanent employees of the company started an employees union in June-July last year because they wanted a body to voice out their grievances. Furthermore elaborating more on his claim, he said that according to rules, such outsourcing must happen only after calling for tender and then selecting the lowest bidder from all those who have responded to the tender.
Moreover the services are at the risk of being suspended due to the strike by the employees. CMRL has, however, denied the possibility of service disruption due to the protest. When speaking to TNM, a CMRL spokesperson said that since the off-duty employees are only on strike, the services will run uninterrupted.
