The All India Railwaymen’s Federation (AIRF), the largest trade union in Indian Railway, has given an ultimatum to the Central government and to the Railway Ministry to implement its charter of demands that includes scrapping of new pension scheme.
Disclosing this to reporters here, its working president N. Kanniah said the AIRF had given the ultimatum on February 21 to implement the federation’s set of demands by June failing which it would conduct secret ballot in all railway zones across the country and decide future course of action.
Prominent among the federation’s demands are implementation of the unanimous report of Cadre Restructuring Committee for all categories of railwaymen retrospectively with effect from May 1, 2010, with payment of consequential arrears, said Mr. Kanniah, who is also the general secretary of Southern Railway Mazdoor Union.
The new pension scheme should not be implemented for railwaymen since railways has a separate budget, Mr. Kanniah said.
He said the federation had also demanded that similar to Military Special Pay granted to military personnel, all railwaymen should be paid a monthly special pay of Rs. 2,000 as “Railway Special Pay” for discharging their duties round-the-clock and throughout the year.
Implementation of Grade Pay for all categories of railwaymen, merger of 80 per cent dearness allowance with basic pay, implementation of unanimous recommendation of the Joint Committee on Package and Career Progression for Trackmen in toto in regard to promotional percentage, no night duty for open line women workers, sanctioning productivity linked bonus on the basis of real wages without any upper ceiling limit and enhancing nursing allowance from Rs. 4,000 to Rs. 10,000 per month are among the other demands of the federation.
