DMTCL employees demand service rules at board meeting, warn of tougher action

Regular officers and employees of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) have demanded that a full-fledged service rules be implemented at the upcoming board meeting on July 30. They have warned of tougher action if their demand is not met.

The demand was made in a press release sent to the media on Wednesday (July 29) on behalf of the regular officers and employees of DMTCL.

The release stated that although the company was established in 2013, a separate service rules for its over 900 regular officers and employees has not yet been formulated or implemented. Since the launch of the metro rail in 2022, employees have been carrying out regular operations and maintenance duties, but the absence of service rules has created uncertainty, discrimination and lack of transparency in job security, discipline and administrative processes.

The employees argued that while other similar government and state-owned enterprises in the country have service rules, DMTCL does not, leading to administrative discrimination that is affecting the company's operations and passenger services.

The release further stated that although the service rules were approved at the 75th board meeting, they have yet to be implemented. Several memoranda have been submitted to the Managing Director on the matter, but no visible progress has been made beyond assurances.

In this situation, regular employees have been holding sit-in programmes since July 28. They said that if the board meeting on July 30 does not decide to implement the service rules, they will announce stricter programmes. Any public suffering resulting from this will be the responsibility of the DMTCL authorities, the release added.