Namma Metro employees cannot go on strike without giving prior notice of at least six weeks.
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The Karnataka government has declared the Namma Metro in Bengaluru as a public utility service under the Industrial Disputes Act. A notification was issued by the Labour Department stating that the Namma Metro operated in the city will be a public utility service under the Act for six months with immediate effect. This means that metro employees cannot go on strike without giving prior notice of at least six weeks and a further two weeks after giving notice. Previously, metro employees could go on a flash strike even though the usual practice was to give notice of two weeks before the strike to Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL), which maintains the Namma Metro in Bengaluru. The new notification comes after the Madras High Court clarified last month that the Tamil Nadu government's Labour Department is the authority to handle industrial disputes between the Chennai Metro Rail Limited and its employees. According to an official in the Labour Department of the Karnataka government, the Madras High Court order is the basis for the newly issued notification. According to the official, it resolved a long-standing dispute over the "appropriate authority" to resolve disputes between employees and management when the metro comes under the Industrial Disputes Act. "Both the central government and the state government have a 50% stake in the metro. Earlier, the metro was considered under 'Railways' but BMRCL requested a change because the metro is not a railway company under The Metro Railway (Operations and Maintenance) Act," explained an official in the Labour Department. In 2018, faced with strikes and conciliatory meetings with its employees‘ union, BMRCL pushed for metro services to be brought under the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA). ESMA mandates that certain essential services cannot be disrupted and legally prohibits employees from going on flash strikes. But in spite of reports of the Centre’s willingness to bring all metro rail services under ESMA, it is yet to be officially notified. Responding to the new notification, the Bengaluru Metro Rail Employees Union (BMREU) is set to approach the Karnataka High Court disputing the notification on the grounds that the state government does not have the power to issue such an order. "We will challenge the new order in the Karnataka High Court. The High Court has already issued a stay on a notification bringing the metro under ESMA. The case is still pending," Suryanarayana Murthy of the BMREU told TNM. He added that the BMREU had given notice before conducting strikes in the past but with the new notification in effect, BMREU will have to give notice at least six weeks prior to a strike. In the last two years, BMREU and BMRCL have clashed on multiple occassions over non-payment of wages. In July 2017, commuters of the Namma Metro were inconvenienced when employees of the metro staged a strike on the Baiyappanahalli-Nayandahalli line. In June 2018, a section of Namma Metro employees threatened to go on strike but after several concillary meetings, the strike was eventually deferred following the intervention of the Karnataka High Court.
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