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| Railway motormen earn up to Rs 1 lakh a month |
| Sharmistha Mukherjee & Sanjay Jog / New Delhi May 15, 2010, 01:24 IST |
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If you thought Mumbai’s motormen were low-paid, think again. The men who held to ransom the commercial capital agitating for higher wages and allowances in excess of Sixth Pay Commission recommendations draw Rs 50,000-60,000 per month.
This apart, the Ministry of Railways doles out dearness allowance, house rent allowance, transport allowance, night duty allowance, education allowance and overtime payments to all motormen on Indian Railways’ network. Sources inform, salaries of motormen at times touch a peak of Rs 1 lakh per month due to sops offered over basic wages. Their duty on the suburban network spans on an average five-and-a-half hours, which stretches according to the overtime opted for.
A senior official at the ministry said: “The railways has already implemented the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations across all categories of employees. We have made payments to the tune of Rs 18,000 crore in the past two years. Yet, motormen are now agitating for higher pay grades and allowances for single-handed duty and kilometres driven.”
Jayant Nimsudkar, convener of the Joint Action Forum of motormen on Central and Western Railways said: “We are demanding revision of pay in accordance with the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission, which has not yet been provided to us. We have also asked for the provision of a co-driver on trains or single-handed allowance.”
Two motormen are usually provided on mail and express trains. Motormen in Mumbai operate suburban trains single-handedly on automatic block routes. Their demand is that they be paid additional allowance for running trains single-handedly. Besides, issues have also been raised related to the compensation paid on the basis of extra kilometres driven each month.
Motormen on Central and Western Railways are entitled to payments equivalent to a minimum of 150 km driven by them. Demands have been raised to double the kilometre ceiling to 300 km. Nimsudkar said: “Till the Fifth Pay Commission, mileage rate was given on the basis of the formula fixed by the Bhalla Committee set up in 1981. This has now been discontinued under the Sixth Commission. We want the Bhalla Committee recommendations to prevail. We have withdrawn our strike as we have been assured by the state government that our concerns will be taken up with the Centre.”
Another official at the ministry said: “In accordance with the demands raised by motormen on Central and Western Railways, compensation offered for night duty and for working on national holidays have been doubled. Changes in grade pay would affect the basic structure of the Pay Commission recommendations, which would impact the entire organisational setup of the Railways adversely.”
The Railways does not have the jurisdiction to implement changes in the pay structure suggested by the Sixth Pay Commission. If, however, they were to accept the demand raised by motormen in Mumbai, the ministry would have to shell out an additional Rs 1,000 crore for incrementing salaries of 0.15 million motormen on the network.
Apprehensions are such a measure would stir employees across all 750 categories on the Railways’ network. The recognised unions of the Railways, sources inform, have declined to press forth with the issues raised by the dissenting faction.
Yet, a six-member fast-track committee has been constituted at the ministry to look into the demands raised by the motormen. The committee is negotiating with the Ministry of Finance for extending tax exemptions on kilometre allowance to Rs 12,000 from Rs 6,000.
This part, considerations are on to permit motormen of Western Railways to drive express trains on a future date. Currently, motormen on Western Railways are not eligible for promotion to drive mail and express trains. The committee is expected to submit its report by the middle of next month.
About 1,500 motormen on Central and Western Railways went on strike on Monday crippling life in India’s commercial capital. The last time such an incident was reported was in 1974.
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