They will hold talks with BMRCL management

Deferring their plan to go on strike on March 22, the employees of Namma Metro on Tuesday decided to postpone the protest by a month and to engage in talks with the management of Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (BMRCL).

The agreement to hold talks was reached before the High Court of Karnataka during the hearing on an application filed by BMRCL, requesting the court to vacate the stay on government’s July 7, 2017 notification of extending the provisions of Karnataka Essential Services Maintenance Act to BMRCL services.

The court in October 2017 stayed the government notification based on a petition filed by BMRCL Employees’ Union.

Four representatives of the union and three representatives on behalf of BMRCL management will engage in talks thrice a week to sort out the issues.

M.S. Balakrishna, retired district judge and presently general manager (Legal); Gurudas Bhat, consultant (Industrial Relations), and Deepa Potnis, executive director (Finance) will be representing the BMRCL management, while the union will be represented by T.R. Uday, general secretary; S. Manjunath, vice-president, Rakesh Joseph, joint secretary, and S. Sagar, executive committee member. Justice B. Sreenivase Gowda, before whom the petition came up for hearing, adjourned further hearing.