Railways to bid goodbye to re-engaged retired employees
| Date :30-Oct-2019 |
By Sagar Mohod :
Rise in wage bills triggers action by Indian Railways that is battling vacancies over two lakhs posts
RE-ENGAGED employees working in various strata in Indian Railways will be shown the door as cost conscious Ministry of Railways aims to trim its rising wage bill. Railway Board in its communiqué mentioned that services of ex-employe esareending by December 1, 2019, and hence if it is not extended they should be discontinued. Putting field unit son warning that in case any ex-employee is allowed to mark his attendance the liability of wages would be that of the respective unit.
Headquarters will not approve the wage bill of reengaged ex-employees post November 30,2019,that is the last working day for them. Theschemeofre-employment ofretired employees was floated in year 2017 and had caused much heart burn among employees.Nearly 32,000 retired employees were re-engaged on daily remuneration and working in field as well as offices as now as per Board’s fiat they would be retired in true sense. Acting on the directives from Board,respective ZonalRailways advised division heads to discontinue services of re-engaged employees. Railway Minister Piyush Goel during video conferencing on October 21, 2019, ordereddis-engagement of services of all the retired employees with immediate effect.
All the General Managers (GMs), Divisional Railway Manager (DRMs), besides officers at Apex Level was in attendance at the meeting when Railway Minister announced the decision about retired employees. The news is likely to provide booster do set of ledging employees union who faced existential crisis in view of re-engaged employees as they were liability from their point of view Employees union had in past often hit out at establishment for patronising retired staffers as it dented employment opportunities for youth in the country.
They said that the engagement of superannuated employees does not hold good for Railways as mentally they cannot provide their best in ever tense atmosphere. In addition the energy and enthusiasm of superannuated staff are much less and hence by that standards even their output is not that satisfactory in comparison with fresh staff. Hence they demanded preference to unemployed youth that could address unemployment situation in country moreover benefit Railways. The scheme was unveiled in year 2017 but within two years realising the folly Ministry has retracted as creation of new jobs in private sector has slowed down opportunities in Indian Railways, one of the largest employer. At offices the retired stenographers were particularly in demand as the art of stenography has died natural death with advent of computers.
For officers it was a difficult task to carry out correspondence as Stenographers ceased to exist and youth did not learn the art thinking that it lacks employability. The wording of Board's communiqué therefore leaves scope for interpretation that Ministerial employee, particularly Stenos, or where services division feel ex-employee may be needed. While one angle is that Railways is trying to trim its salary budget in view of tight position of finances and hence decided to first discontinue services of re-employed retired staffers. Secondly, it is being said to boost employment market these posts might be advertised and provide opportunity to unemployed youth in the country.
It may also be possible that Railways may fill-up part of vacancies in safety sector that are critical to train operations. Railways were paying through the nose to retired employees who were getting 50 per cent of last basic pay drawn plus applicable Dearness Allowance.This was over the pension drawn by them which ultimately for fresh employee the wage bill would be quite lower as they are entitled for pay of Rs 17,000 if engaged on contract basis.
At time of floating of the scheme, applications were invited from interested retired staffers to work in various sectors of mammoth network of Indian Railways. The scheme mentioned that re-engagement is upto 65 years of age or till availability of regular panel from Railway Recruitment Cell/ Railway Recruitment Board/ Departmental Selection/ Transfer, etc.