Railways announces pay grade upgradation for 80,000 field officers

Around 80,000 railway employees facing stagnation in their jobs now have an opportunity to improve their pay scale with the national transporter announcing a new provision under which its supervisory cadre will have a chance to reach higher pay grades equivalent to Group A officers.

Announcing the new provision on Wednesday, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said there was stagnation of supervisory cadre of railway in Level-7 and the scope of their promotion was negligible.

"There was a long pending demand for upgradation of supervisory cadre since the last 16 years. The only scope of promotion was selection in 3,712 vacancies by giving exam in Group 'B'. Now provision has been made for 50 per cent people from Level 7 to go to Level 8.

"Provision has been made for promotion of 50 per cent people in non functional grade from Level-8 to Level 9 in four years," he said at a press conference here.

The move is expected to benefit 40,000 such supervisor grade employees like station masters, ticket checkers, traffic inspectors, among others whom the minister described as "field level workers".

The push in pay grade means that everyone will get an average of Rs 2,500 to Rs 4,000 per month extra salary.

This will entail a Rs 10,000 crore increase in the wage bill, but the minister said the step will be financially neutral as it will be compensated primarily from the savings that the railways has made in its diesel bill.

This will benefit supervisors of civil, mechanical, electrical, S&T traffic chemical and S&T, metallurgical, stores, and commercial departments.

"As a result of vigorous persuasions of the All India Railwaymen's Federation (AIRF) with the Ministry of Railways as well as DoP&T and MoF(DoE), the proposal of the Railway Board regarding upgradation of pay scales of supervisors from erstwhile GP (grade pay) Rs 4,600 up to Rs 5,400, has been approved by the finance ministry...," Shiva Gopal Mishra, general secretary, AIRF said.