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.

He said the Federation did not agree and insisted for not less than last year's bonus and finally it was agreed upon for 78 days.

Given the financial crunch, Railways would be hard-pressed to give more bonus than last time, the Railway official said, adding "the bonus would be declared after the Cabinet nod."
Though there are a total of 13.26 lakh railway employees, 1.26 lakh are not covered under the bonus.
The financial implication of payment of 78 days' bonus to railway employees has been estimated to be over Rs 1000 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.