Good news for these central govt employees, Cabinet approves Rs 2029 crore bonus ahead of Diwali; check details

Ahead of Diwali and on the first day of Navratri, the Union Cabinet has approved payment of productivity linked bonus of 78 days for Rs 2028.57 crore to over 11.72 lakh railway employees, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said. The payment of productivity linked bonus acts as an incentive to motivate the railway employees for working towards improvement in the performance of the Railways.

The amount will be paid to various categories of Railway staff like track maintainers, loco pilots, train managers (guards), station masters, supervisors, technicians, technician helpers, pointsman, ministerial staff and other Group XC staff, an official statement said later.

However, several railway unions launched a social media campaign on Thursday demanding productivity-linked bonuses based on the 7th Pay Commission instead of the sixth. IREF had written to Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw a fortnight ago in support of its demand, but its office-bearers said they didn't receive any response from the government. Hence to press for their demand, the railway unions launched a social media campaign on X from Thursday.

During the countrywide lockdown forced by the COVID-19 pandemic, people were afraid to step out of their homes but the railway employees successfully operated trains and registered a sharp increase in earnings as is evident in the quarterly bulletin of Indian Railways, they said.

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Indian Railway Signal & Telecommunication Maintainers Union and All India Railway Track Maintainers Union among others have supported the move. According to government norms, railway employees should get a productivity-linked bonus equal to 78 days' salary, they said.

"But the payment made is Rs 17,951 on a monthly pay scale of Rs 7,000, which is not the monthly salary of any railway employee at present," Alok Chandra Prakash, General Secretary, IRSTMU. "After the implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission, the minimum monthly basic salary in railways is Rs 18,000, which makes the bonus amount Rs 46,159," Prakash said. "We receive a productivity-linked bonus every year before Dussehra based on the minimum salary as per the Sixth Pay Commission, which is unjust," Sarvjeet Singh, National General Secretary, Indian Railways Employees Federation (IREF) said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DNA staff and is published from PTI)