BENGALURU: It is huge relief for Operations and Maintenance staff of the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd at Baiyappanahalli depot.
Having been put on a bizarre shift system which involved staggered duty hours spread across a day, the management has finally decided to put every employee on the ‘split roster’ duty only once a month. All along, the staff had to work as per the split roster once every week.
This is welcome news for nearly 100 train operators and supervisors attached to this depot responsible for train operations on the Purple Line (Mysore Road to Baiyappanahalli).
The new rota was introduced on a trial basis in February. Employees were aggrieved that the eight-hour working hours into two shifts, one in the morning and another in the evening, prevented them from getting sufficient rest or carrying out other personal works in between.
For instance, the work hours for an employee could be between 7 am and 11 am and again from 4 pm to 8 pm. It could even be from 8 am to 12 noon and again 6 pm to 10 pm. Initially 19 employees had to work each day as per this roster. Women employees were particularly agitated as it neither gave them time to spend with their children nor tend to domestic work.
While the management claimed only 19 staff were put on this roster each day since it began, the Employees Union claimed over 50 staff were put on this roster from February.
Huge credit for the split roster almost vanishing now must go the Bangalore Metro Rail Employees Union (BMREU) which fought tooth and nail with the management for the removal of staggered timings. It had even approached the Labour Commissioner and filed a complaint against BMRCL.
Suryanarayana Murthy, vice-president of BMREU told Express, “Two weeks ago, when I met the management, I presented facts to show that employees regularly wait for four hours each day to begin the second shift. I also highlighted the case of a specific woman train operator waiting for 6 hours and 20 minutes between her two shifts.”
Murthy added that making an employee work only once a month on this kind of shift “is agreeable to the Union.”BMRCL Managing Director Pradeep Singh Kharola confirmed the change.