Productivity Linked Bonus (PLB) equivalent to 78 days for Railways

Production Linked Bonus for Railway Employees

The Union Cabinet today approved the proposal of the Ministry of Railways for payment of Productivity Linked Bonus (PLB) equivalent to 78 days` wages for the financial year 2011-2012 for all eligible non-gazetted railway employees.

The financial implication of payment of 78 days` PLB to railway employees has been estimated to be Rs.1021.56 crore. The wage calculation ceiling prescribed for payment of PLB to the eligible non-gazetted railway employees is Rs. 3500/- per month.

About 12.37 lakh non-gazetted railway employees are likely to benefit from the decision.

Payment of PLB to eligible railway employees is made each year before the Dusshera/Puja holidays. The decision of the Cabinet shall be implemented before the holidays for this year as well.

The salient features of the PLB scheme evolved as a result of review of the scheme and approval of the Cabinet on 23.9.2000 are as under: –

a) The output for a year is reckoned by the equated net tonne kilometres by adding together: –
i) total goods revenue net tonne kilometres.
ii) non-suburban passenger kilometres converted by a factor of 0.076.
iii) suburban passenger kilometres converted by a factor of 0.053.

b) The input is taken as the non-gazetted staff strength (excluding RPF/RPSF personnel), increased by the incremental increase/decrease in capital during the year. Incremental capital is confined to Rolling Stock utilised for movement of trains. The measurement of capital is in terms of tractive effort (Diesel Electric & Electric) for Locomotives, carrying capacity for Wagons and seating capacity for Coaches. The tractive effort of locomotives and carrying capacity of Wagons/Coaches together are given equal weight The relative weight of wagons and coaches is determined on the basis of ratio of goods train kilometres and passenger train kilometres in the total train kilometres.

Based on this principle, the relative weights are 0.50 for Tractive Effort, 0.20 for Wagon Capacity and 0.30 for Seating Capacity. Thus, the percentage increase in Tractive Effort over the base year is multiplied by 0.50; similarly the percentage increase in Wagon Capacity and Seating Capacity is multiplied by 0.20 and 0.30 respectively and added up to arrive at the total percentage increase in capital. The labour input i.e. non-gazetted staff strength is then increased to the extent of this percentage increase in the incremental capital, c) The ratio of the output to the input is the productivity index for the year.

Background:

Railways were the first departmental undertaking of the Government of India where the concept of PLB was introduced. The main consideration at that time was the important role of the Railways as an infrastructural support in the performance of the economy as a whole. In the overall context of railway working, it was considered desirable to introduce the concept of PLB as against the concept of Bonus on the lines of The Payment of Bonus Act -1965. Even though the Payment of Bonus Act does not apply to the railways, yet the broad principles contained in that Act were kept in view for the purpose of determining the “Wage/Pay Ceiling”, definition of `Salary`/`Wage`, etc. The PLB Scheme for the railways came into force from 1979-80 onwards, and was evolved in consultation with the two recognised federations viz. the All India Railwaymen`s Federation and National Federation of Indian Railwaymen and with the approval of the Cabinet. The scheme envisages a review every three years.

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