Minister promises for 78 days bonus for Railway employees

Railways is planning to give Productivity Linked Bonus (PLB) equivalent to 78 days’ wages to its 12 lakh employees.

In this connection, Railway Minister Mr.Dinesh Trivedi assured in a meeting with federations that 78 days’ productivity-linked bonus (PLB) would be given to employees in the grade pay ranging from Rs 1,800 to Rs 4,600.

The sanction of Bonus would result in additional burden of Rs 600-700 crore for Railways.

During previous year, Railway employees were granted bonus for 77 days. Out of total employees of 13.26 lakh railway employees, around 1.26 lakh employees will not be covered by productivity linked bonus on account of ceiling of pay received.

It is estimated that if PLB is granted as per the above calculations, the maximum amount of bonus an employee can get will be around Rs.8900 as the maxium bonus that can be sanctioned for 30 days is fixed at Rs.3500 in the bonus Act.

M Raghavaiah, General Secretary of National Federation of Indian Railwaymen, said, “We had demanded 80 days bonus this year because Railways have carried more loadings than last year. Loadings have gone up from the 876 million tonnes (MT) in 2010 to 924 MT till March 2011.”

The union leader has also added that “It is true that Railways’ financial position is not good. But its employees should not be deprived of their due because of that. We have suggested passenger fare hike to improve finances.”

Source: Business Today