20 employees of private firm, which supplies services to Tejas Express, sacked without notice

At least 20 employees of a private firm, which provides different services aboard Tejas Express, were sacked on Wednesday (November 27) without any notice. The sacking has been done at various levels including cabin crew, attendant and others.

The sacked employees said that they were made to work for 18 hours and even while they were sick but still they were shown the doors without any notice

The sacked employees have tweeted Railways Minister Piyush Goyal seeking help. The fired employees told Goyal that they were sacked by the management without any prior notice. Tejas Express is the country’s first private player-operated train and it run by the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). 

IRCTC sources, however, said that only those crew members have been fired who were not performing well. Sources said that some departments were overstaffed too and this is why the management was forced to reduce the workforce.

Though Tejas Express is operated by IRCTC, all services aboard this train, including staff to food and water, are handled by Brindavan Food Products, which is a Delhi-based company. Brindavan Food Products is associated with IRCTC as a private contractor and this company has hired more than 40 employees as cabin crew and attendant for Tejas Express. 

Launched on October 4, 2019, the Delhi-Lucknow Tejas Express has one executive AC chair car and nine AC chair car coaches. Tejas Express is the first train in India which gives compensation to the passengers in case the train gets delayed. In case the train is late by more than an hour, a compensation of Rs 100 will be given to each of the passengers and in case the train gets delayed for more than two hours, Rs 250 will be compensated to each of the passengers.