Mumbai: Staff forced to line up for attendance at Lower Parel railway workshop

An employee said the bosses must regularise shifts so that all the staff don’t arrive at the same time, leading to such crowds

The queues of staff for attendance at the Lower Parel railway workshop in central Mumbai have been spilling onto the street outside for nearly half a km. Railway employees say the queues are because of the biometric element in the punch machine that mandates every employee be physically verified. This started since the recent relaxations in restrictions in May. Local residents and passers-by are surprised that the queues have become a regular affair.

Employees worried

A railway employee said that while they welcomed the new process for attendance that ensures transparency and authentication, the workshop bosses need to work on regularising shifts so that all the staff don't arrive at the same time, leading to such crowds.

"The queues get very long some days and employees arriving from far-off places like Ambernath, Kalyan, Virar and Vasai end up spending a lot of time in them before entering the premises. It is very taxing in such adverse conditions, especially on rainy days," another employee said.

"As it is, due to the long queue, there is no social distancing. Moreover, one needs to lower the mask for facial recognition which could prove dangerous during these times," another employee said.

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‘Will be streamlined'

Officials said that biometric attendance and other such protocols are in line with the national policy and during the peak of COVID-19, the practices had been suspended and manual register entries encouraged. These are required as they authenticate the presence of the employee and leave no scope for those who want to play truant. As far as the long queues are concerned, they will soon get streamlined as regular shifts are restored.

Western Railway Chief Public Relations Officer Sumit Thakur said, "We are already looking into this as it had been started on trial only. All such matters are being sorted out."

"Further, the biometric was originally suspended only for the touch-based systems as per the central guidelines issued by the Department of Personnel and Training on March 6, 2020. At Lower Parel, the facial recognition system that takes care of such instructions has been implemented," he added.