38 POINT CHARTER OF DEMANDS FOR STRIKE BALLOT

All India Railwaymen's Federation

4, State Entry Road,
New Delhi - 110055.

   The 88th Annual Conference of the All India Railwaymen’s Federation, held at Visakhapatnam on 18-20  December, 2012, decided that, if the following burning grievances of the Railwaymen are not resolved in a  time-bound programme, AIRF would be compelled to conduct strike ballot as a first step for a decisive  struggle:-

   1. Filling-up all vacant posts.

   2. Sanction additional posts in commensurate with increase in the number of trains and workload.

   3. Stop outsourcing of perennial nature jobs, violating the provision of Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act, 1970.

   4. Scrap New Pension Scheme and cover all the staff with pension and family pension scheme as available to staff appointed prior to 01.01.2004.

   5. Implement recommendations of Cade Restructuring Committee.

7th CPC News: Performance-linked pay system may be introduced.

   The new pay commission needs to embed performance meaningfully in babus' pay structure

   The government last week cleared the setting up of the 7th Central Pay Commission for its employees. The move may be prudent politically but it will add to the problems of the next government which will also be burdened with the impact of the Food Bill on financial and the Land Bill on investment.

   The CPC recommendations, which will be implemented from January 2016 have to be handled properly—implementation of the 6th CPC recommendations threw fiscal deficit out of gear for two years, FY09 and FY 10. Though there will be no arrear burden this time as 7th CPC recommendations can be implemented from the due date itself—CPC is constituted every 10 years and 6th CPC recommendations were implemented from 2008 instead of 2006—the new pay structure itself will add to the government woes, especially at a time when the government is expected to be considerably cash-strapped for an extended period of time. The 12th five-year-plan average growth rate is unlikely to surpass even 6%.

   A close look at the composition of the central government staff and pay structure clearly indicates there is not much that the government can do (or be willing to do) as far as curtailing the expenditure on this account is concerned. But what the CPC can do certainly is target hikes better to reward performers. A transparent and effective performance-linked pay system devised carefully, rather than the current token one, can be a catalyst for improving the government functioning.

Railways likely to declare 78-day bonus

   Despite financial constraint, Railways is likely to announce 78-day wages as bonus, same as last year, for its employees for 2012-13.

   "The proposal for declaring 78-day productivity-linked bonus for railway employees is being finalised with railway unions and it will go to the Cabinet for a final decision," a senior Railway Ministry official said.

   Productivity-linked bonus is paid to railway employees each year before the Dussehra festival.

   Over 12.60 lakh non-gazetted railway employees will benefit from the Cabinet decision on the bonus.

   "We have demanded more than 78-day bonus for this year as Railways had given the 78-day bonus to its employees last year also. But, Railway proposed 73 day bonus citing financial difficulty," an office-bearer of the National Federation of Indian Railwaymen told PTI.