Labour troubles, which had held up work at the Kochi Metro project worksites for a few days, have been resolved for now and a mechanism to avert work stoppage in the future has been put in place.

This follows an agreement at a meeting of trade union leaders, Ministers, and top officials of the government, district administration and the Kochi Metro Rail Ltd on Tuesday.

Labour Minister Shibu Baby John announced that the metro project from now on would be a no-labour-strike worksite. Transport Minister Aryadan Mohammed promised that the project would be completed within the remaining 992 days of the scheduled time limit.

It was agreed that even if disputes over labour arose, there should not be any work stoppage. Disputes should be referred to a district-level committee whose chairman would be the Collector and convenor would be the regional joint labour commissioner. The committee will include one representative each of the Kochi Metro Rail Ltd and the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation.

If a disputed is not resolved amicably at the district level meeting, it will be referred to the State-level committee headed by the Labour Minister. This committee will have, as members, the Labour Commissioner, the MD of KMRL, a top official of the DMRC, and two leaders each of the central trade unions.

An agreement on relocating and redeployment of workers from one site to another has been made so that excess workers at one site could be effectively utilised at another site.

The Rs. 5500-plus-crore, 25-km Kochi Metro is a prestigious project for the State government. It is also a litmus test for Kerala’s troublesome trade union culture. If the metro project is completed on time without much labour troubles, more mega projects in the private as well as public sectors are expected to come to Kerala.

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