CHENNAI: Chennai Metro Rail employees who were staging a protest demanding a pay hike have temporarily withdrawn their agitation.The employees said the CMRL management had sought time to take a decision on their demands. "The management has told us that they need two weeks’ time to discuss and take a decision about our demands," an employee said.Nearly 250 technicians and junior engineers, who play a crucial role in the metro rail operations in the city, had been staging a sit-in protest in front of Chennai Metro Rail Limited head office at Koyambedu since July 1. Protesters had been participating after their duty hours, as they did not want to disrupt train services. At work, they were sporting black badges.CMRL officials had earlier said the workers were unlikely to get another raise as their salaries had been revised recently.The protesters, who are employed as station controllers, train operators, traffic controllers and other technicians, said even after the recent pay hike, said they were drawing the same salary as they had done before.Technicians draw around Rs 23,000 and engineers get Rs 39,000. “We were supposed to get around 15%, but we got only 10% or less. Also, certain allowances we were getting were scrapped. So, even after the pay hike, we are still getting the same salary we were getting before,” a staff member said.

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