Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)’s New York City Transit told a veteran Sikh subway motorman that he could not operate passenger trains while wearing a turban and reassigned him to moving trains in a subway yard. However, within days, it changed its decision and said he can continue running passenger trains.

Charlie Seaton, NYCTA spokesman, told News India-Times that Sathari Singh alias Kevin Harrington will continue to operate passenger trains. When asked as to why he was earlier reassigned to yard duty and then the decision canceled, Seaton said: “We decided that the dress code was not being enforced correctly. We will look into the entire aspect of it before taking any decision.”

Sathari Singh in a press statement said he has been a member of the Sikh religion for the last 27 years and associated with the Sikh movement since 1973. “I have been an employee of MTA for about 23 years and a train operator for about 20 years. I was a Sikh at the time of employment and promotion to train operator. No one had objected until now about my ability to work at the New York Transit Authority with a turban.”

Singh, who operates the 4 Train, said on June 3, he was called to the office of the No. 4 Line superintendent at Grand Central station and told he was being restricted to the yard for exercising his religious prerogative to wear a turban.

Singh said he was also told that he “would lose my penalty job pay that comes with my pick job, which amounts to a 20 percent loss of pay from this summary demotion... They were unable to tell me why, at this time, after 23 years service, this is happening.”

Singh said he took the offer under duress. “I maintained that I did not give up any right to sue or grieve these outrages,” he said.

The only thing he was told was that he “violated the hat rule….I asked him for an explanation but he wouldn’t give me the courtesy of one. I further asked him if it was a problem of recognition. I elaborated that on 9/11 I evacuated a few hundred people from my train trapped between Wall and Fulton streets. For this action I was commended by the MTA, went to the award ceremony and was the subject of an article in the Transit newsletter. He made no comment on my statements.”

Singh said he had planned to file a suit against the transit authority through his attorney Arthur Schwartz. Singh’s wife Siri Datar told News India -Times that the MTA president had called on him and said the decision had been rescinded. Singh along with other union members was scheduled to hold a press conference on June 8.