Metro rail-crammed Dhaka's most popular mass transport-resumed operation after a halt on Friday as the striking employees postponed their strike enforced to press home their demand for service rule with some perks.
They called off their strike at the last hour of the day's train operation with an assurance of approval for service rule in the next board meeting of Dhaka metro-rail company.
Following postponement, Dhaka Mass Transit Company ran sweeping train around 8:15 pm to operate last one or two trains.
"Train will run normally tomorrow (Saturday)," says an employee of the striking group.
Meanwhile, a DMTCL statement says train service resumed at 8:15pm from Uttara.
The protesters in a press release at 9pm said, "The strike has been put off till December 18 as the authority assured of approving the service rule, excluding the provision of 'special rule (bidhi)' of the government service rule, during the emergency board meeting and making it effective on December 19."
Uncertainty came down following the strike on the demand for immediate approval for the service rule although Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) has convened an emergency board meeting on the agenda for December 18.
The DMTCL employees of grades 9 to 16 had announced their plan to go on strike on December 12 (Friday) to press home their demand.
"We don't have any option as the DMTCL management had several times assured us of the service rule but didn't," one of the protesters told the FE writer Friday.
He mentions last time assurance was given on December 3 as the following board meeting was on December 9 which, however, went past without fulfilling the demand.
The work abstention began despite DMTCL having issued a statement on Thursday night calling for operating metro trains after a meeting with a group of striking employees in the evening.
Earlier, the company assured the same striking group of approving the service rule within 30 days when they had announced a strike on February 21.
The DMTCL authority finalised the draft service rule in May-June and placed at board meetings several times but it was not approved on grounds of a legal conflict with government rule.
The drafted the service rule proposes a 3,800-strong staff, including 1,356 outsourced ones.
The striking employees are mostly train operators and station staff, including station controllers and section engineers who say they have been deprived of various benefits for lack of service rules. The perks include promotions, gratuities, and pensions.
smunima@yahoo.com
