The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a proposal to give Indian Railways staff production-linked bonus – decision would benefit 12.58 lakh staff and cost the government Rs 1,030.02 crore.
As per the proposal approved by the Cabinet, the output for a year is to be calculated with the total goods revenue net tonne kilometres, non-suburban passenger kilometres converted by a factor of 0.076 and suburban passenger kilometres converted by a factor of 0.053, the government said in a press statement.
“The input is taken as the non-gazetted staff strength (excluding RPF/RPSF personnel), increased by the incremental increase/decrease in capital (over average of last three years) during the year,” it said.
The government has given relative weights for Tractive Effort at 0.50, for Wagon Capacity at 0.20 and 0.30 for Seating Capacity. The labour input i.e. non-gazetted staff strength is then increased to the extent of the percentage increase in the incremental capital, it said further.
The railways would also consider the highest production-linked bonus amount of 78 days’ wages as paid in the past four financial years of FY2011 until FY2014. “This year also PLB equivalent to 78 days’ wages will be paid considering the good financial performance which is expected to motivate employees for working towards improving the same in future,” It said.
The government expects the financial implication because of the PLB payment to railway employees at Rs1030.02 crore. The wage calculation ceiling prescribed for payment of PLB to the eligible non-gazetted railway employees is Rs3500 per month. The maximum amount payable per eligible railway employee is Rs8975 for 78 days, it added.