Bengaluru Metro women staff facing harassment?

Bengaluru: The BMRCL labour union has claimed that women employees face harassment at the work place and the organisation does not have a proper grievance redressal mechanism. 

BMRCL labour union Vice-President Suryanarayan Murthy said, “Some supervisors show little consideration towards women train operators, station controllers, who are newly-married, pregnant or have children. Despite their requests the management harasses pregnant women by making them perform duties at a different stations each day, often far away from their homes.”

“A namesake creche has been established at the Byappanahalli metro station for workers, with no supervision, nurses, beds, and other facilities for toddlers. They are calling a random room, a creche. Why would anyone leave their child there?” Murthy questioned.

He also claimed that there are instances of sexual harassment, but the women employees are too scared to report to their superiors, as they feel no action will be taken, and there is no grievance redressal cell.

The Karnataka High Court in 2014 ordered formation of a monitoring committee to address grievances concerning workers of Metro, and ensure proper implementation of labour laws.

Shankar, Executive Director of Operations and Maintenance Wing, said, “We do not have a full fledged grievance cell, but we have a committee that will discuss and address the issues of employees if they come up. So far we have not received complaints about creche facility at Bayyappanahalli. It is completely managed by women.”

“As for pregnant women, it is not possible to allot a set of people to each of the 40 stations. It keeps changing. Moreover, metro functions even on weekends, so employees are need to be present on those days too. There are no problems at present, everything is taken care of,” he assured.  

However, Murthy threatened to escalate the concerns of the employees with the Human Rights Commission if they are not addressed at the earliest by the BMRCL management.