Cabinet Meeting: Government Approves Rs 2,029-Crore Bonus For Railway Employees

The Union Cabinet has approved a performance-linked bonus scheme for railway employees, worth Rs 2,029 crore, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced on Thursday.

The bonus, which will be equivalent to 78 days' wages, will be paid to a total of 11.72 lakh employees, he said. The payment of bonuses is completed each year before the Durga Puja or Dusshera holidays.

The maximum amount payable per eligible employee is Rs 17,951 for 78 days, an official release noted.

The bonus will be paid to various categories of staff including track maintainers, loco pilots, train managers (guards), station masters, supervisors, technicians, technician helpers, pointsmen, ministerial staff and other Group C staff, the release added.

For the calculation of bonus, 50% weightage is given to input-output, and 50% is based on the rail body's operating ratio. Based on this calculation, the bonus was calculated as 76 days. However, the Cabinet decided to approve a bonus of 78 days, Vaishnaw said.

The performance of railways in fiscal 2024 was "very good,"  the government release said. A record cargo of 1,588 million metric tonnes was loaded and nearly 6.7 billion passengers used the trains for commutation during the fiscal, it added.

"Many factors contributed to this record performance. These include improvement in infrastructure due to the infusion of record capex by the government in railways, efficiency in operations and better technology etc," the release stated.

Additionally, the Cabinet also gave its nod for a performance-linked reward scheme for major ports and dock workers. "Productivity-linked reward has been calculated on the wage ceiling for calculation of bonus at Rs 7,000 per month," the government said.

The scheme will be applicable from fiscal 2021 to 2026, and it will benefit about 20,704 employees. The total financial implication for the entire period will be about Rs 200 crore, the release added.

The announcement came shortly after NDTV reported that the government was expected to announce bonuses for railway employees.

This comes nearly a month after a group of railway employees wrote to Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in September, demanding that their productivity-linked bonus, typically received before Dussehra, be calculated based on the 7th Pay Commission instead of the 6th Pay Commission.