Productivity Linked Bonus (PLB) for Railway staff

Payment of Bonus (Amendment) ordinance 2007 according to which section 12 of the payment of Bonus Act 1965 had been amended raising the ceiling for calculation purpose from salary of 2500/- P.M. to Rs.3500/-P.M. w.e.f. 01.04.2006. Also amended the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 to raise the eligibility limit for payment of bonus from the salary or wage of Rs. 3500/- per month to Rs. 10000/- per month.

Now news have surfaced that Govt has decided to raise the upper limit by Rs 1000 ie from Rs.3500 to Rs. 4500.

Bonus is paid to all non Gazetted Railway employees.

For calculating PLB of Railway staff 1977 is taken as the base year with index for the year taken as 100.

Bonus for 1977 is taken as 25 days and any excess or decrease over it by each 2250 million net Tonne Km of Revenue earning Traffic will increase or decrease Amount of bonus by a day.

The sum is calculated as if wages are Rs.3500.

The amount arrived at is divided by the number of employees.

If the index of production falls below 90, no bonus shall be paid for the year.

For running staff pay includes Pay element of Running Allowance.

For 2010-11 the trade unions AIRF and NFIR announced 78 days of bonus with much pomp, but remained silent about the sum. As per the above calculation the actual amount a Railway employee got was a paltry Rs. 8,975/-

For past many years Railway employees are getting their Salary Payment through Bank. Now the category of cashier is very limited. Employees also feel comfortable to draw all payment through Bank. But some trade unions are regularly demand and fight for cash payment in order to collect money. They even prepare to stop trains for this purpose, and not for raising ceiling.

Year                   Days                                 Bonus Amount Rs.

2001-2002          59                                     4849

2002-2003          59                                     4849

2003-2004          59                                     4836

2004-2005           59                                     4849

2005-2006            65                                    5342

2006-2007            70                                     5753

2007-2008            73                                     8399

2008-2009            75                                    8630

2009-2010            77                                     8860

2010-2011             78                                     8975

2011-2012              78                                    8975

2012-2013              78                                    8975

2013-2014               78                                   8975

2014-2015