Turmoil in Railway Employees Cooperative Society

CHENNAI: In a strange industrial dispute, the staff of a cooperative credit society, run by railway workers and managed by leaders of the Southern Railway Mazdoor Union (SRMU), have formed their own union and are on a sit-in strike in their Chennai office since Monday, accusing the ‘management’ of ‘ill-treatment’.Work has come to a standstill in the office of the Railway Employees Cooperative Credit Society Ltd(RECCS) as hundreds of employees, who recently formed their Railway Employees Cooperative Society Staff Union, are protesting against the alleged highhandedness of the ‘management’, which comprises prominent union leaders.While SRMU general secretary N Kanniah is the Chairman of the Society, another senior leader of the trade union (SRMU), Manivannan, is the Chief Executive of the society.According to R C Cyril Thyagaraj, general secretary of the Railway Employees Cooperative Society Staff Union, the management was using transfer as a tool to punish workers who questioned it.He said an employee was transferred to Hubli because he complained about lack of basic amenities in the office, which has only eight chairs in a section having a staff strength of 12 to 15 persons.He also alleged that some employees of the Society were forced to go to the Chennai airport for giving a warm reception a top politician in Tamil Nadu, every time he left or arrived in Chennai. “No one dared to object to it fearing a transfer,” he said.Thyagaraj, who sought immediate elections for the society as the same set of office-bearers had been continuing for many years without holding elections, demanded transparency in promotion and transfer polices as part of the 15-point demand they have placed before the ‘management.’The Society, having over 50,000 railways employees as shareholders, has 16 branches spread across the southern States. About 1,350 people are working in the society, which largely deals with disbursement of loans for the railway employees. The society has been under the control of the Southern Railway Mazdoor Unionnow.