Cabinet clears Railway bonus

The Union Cabinet today cleared a proposal of Railways to give its employees 78-day wages as bonus for 2012-13.
Productivity-linked bonus is paid to railway employees each year before the Dussehra festival.
"The Union Cabinet today approved the proposal of the Ministry of Railways for payment of Productivity-Linked Bonus (PLB) equivalent to 78 days wages for the financial year 2012-13 for all eligible non-gazetted railway employees," said a government statement.
Over 12.37 lakh non-gazetted railway employees will benefit from the decision of the Cabinet.
The PLB equivalent to 78 days wages will be paid as a special case considering the good financial performances which is expected to motivate the employees, the statement said.

The financial implication of payment of 78 days' bonus to railway employees, the same as last year, has been estimated to be over Rs 1043.43 crore.

The wage calculation ceiling prescribed for payment of bonus to eligible non-gazetted railway employees is Rs 3,500 per month and an employee is likely to get about Rs 8,975 as this year's bonus.
During 2012-13, the Gross Traffic Receipt (GTR) of Railways was Rs 1.24 lakh crore, an increase of 18.85 per cent against GTR of Rs. 1.04 crore during 2011-12.
While Railway unions had demanded more than 78 days of bonus as Railways had given bonus of as many days last year also, Railways officials said they would be hard-pressed to give more bonus than last year given the financial condition of the organisation.

Though there are a total of 13.26 lakh railway employees, 1.26 lakh are not covered under the bonus.