Mumbai: Western Railway temporarily suspends use of RFID for attendance amid protest from workers

Keep in mind the protest of hundreds of workers, the western railway temporarily suspended the use of radio-frequency identification tags (RFID) till the concerns of employees are amicably resolved.

According to Sumit Thakur, Chief Public Relations Officer, WR, RFID has been installed on a trial basis to introduce paperless working and safety purposes.

"Some issue in this regard has been raised by employees but now everything is normal. RFID issue is being looked into as it was on a trial basis and so it has been temporarily suspended till concerns of employees are amicably resolved," Sumit Thakur said.

Earlier, hundreds of workers of Lower Parel Workshop gathered on Saturday and protested against the use of RFID for attendance.

In December 2021, amid the surge of daily Covid cases owing to Omicron and Delta variants across Mumbai, the Western Railway introduced a new pattern of attendance system using an RFID card.

The employees feard that in the future, the work hours could be monitored based on the number of times the RFID card gets swiped. Hence, on Saturday, they protested against the withdrawal of the RFID attendance system.

"We are happy with this decision. The administration needs to discuss with us before taking any such decisions in future," said a leader of the Western Railway Employees Union.