The Delhi High Court on Friday restrained employees of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation from going on strike from Saturday. More than 9,000 non-executive staff, including train operators, maintenance workers and station controllers, have been protesting since June 19 at the Yamuna Bank and Shahdara metro stations.

The employees had threatened to strike work from midnight on Friday if their demands of salary revision and promotion are not fulfilled. Their other demands included the recognition of the staff council as an employees’ union, proper guidelines for sacking an employee and the implementation of Industrial Dearness Allowance as per the third pay revision scale.

DMRC Staff Council Secretary Ravi Bhardwaj told the court on Friday that talks between the Aam Aadmi Party government and the metro employees had failed earlier in the day. “So, we will go on an indefinite strike from midnight,” he said, according to The Times of India. The metro corporation had moved an urgent petition before the Delhi High Court following the threat of a strike.

However, the court said that the corporation is running a public utility service, which caters to around 25 lakh citizens of Delhi on a daily basis, and that it has not given advance notice of the proposed strike, NDTV reported.

“The respondents [employees] are restrained from going on strike on June 30 or till further orders in the matter,” the court said.

Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had warned that the government would invoke the Essential Services Maintenance Act if the unions proceeded with the strike. “Whereas all genuine demands of metro employees should be met, strike would cause inconvenience to lakhs of people,” he tweeted. “Whereas govt imposing ESMA as last resort, I would urge employees to not resort to strike.”