Notice by SWR for Central Leaders campaign meeting

ALL INDIA LOCO RUNNING STAFF ASSOCIATION

Reg No. 17903                                                         HQ Adra

South Western Railway Zone,              Hubbali

President                  General Secretary                                   Treasurer

SD ARNOLD                     K RAMESHAN                                                S JAGADEESAN

Dear Comrades,

Yes we have been deceived once again with the implementation of effect date as July 1^st 2017 for 7 CPC allowances.

 With 6^th  CPC even though the issue of unjust pay of ALPs had spread like wild fire  the CPC did not give any enhancement in pay. In addition to that the CPC merged all the 5 higher posts into one grade pay of Rs.4200 without even considering the vast change in duty and responsibilities attached to each post. There were nationwide protests, and in a partial modification to CPC recommendations, Railway Board did not merge the grades to one, but maintained as promotion posts within the same grade pay. AILRSA called for a hunger fast program all over India. This agitation flared up in Mumbai and Motormen at Mumbai went on strike paralyzing Mumbai. Com. Basudeb Acharia raised the issue  in Parliament and the Parliament functioning got obstructed for 2 days. There were serious protests from the part of Assistant Loco Pilots in many ways – many shaved their heads, conducted protests half naked etc. The protest and strike in Mumbai forced the Government to refer the matter to a fast track committee. But it also ended as an attempt to end the strike with no fruitful result  from the FTC.  AILRSA gave detailed representation to FTC.  AIRF/NFIR did not place any demand and surprisingly boycotted it.

But the Railway Board was forced to order cadre restructuring order increasing the percentage of Sr. ALPs from 30% to 80% and that of Sr.LP/Shunting from 30% to 50% within an year of pay revision. By this the newly recruited ALPs are now getting a time bound promotion which has its cumulative effect in the entire service and pension.

We continued the agitation in different ways for better pay, allowances and improvement of working conditions. AILRSA declared 2 days hunger fast at Delhi.  RLC/Delhi initiated conciliation. After many sittings as Railway management was not ready to accept any demand, the conciliation ended in failure. Though RLC/DLI forwarded the failure report to Ministry of Labour in time, they failed to act on it. So we organized a Dharna in front of all Regional Labour Commissioners demanding action on failure report of RLC/DLI. As a result of all these, finally the following demands from our end were referred to NIT/Mumbai in 2012.

1. Allow 2800 GP to ALPs.

2. Allow distinct grade pays for LP/Goods, LP/Pass & LP/Mail.

3. Running allowance as per RAC80 formulae.

4. Onerous duty allowance for all grades.

5. Judicial review of HOER.

          That exercise is continuing at NIT, Mumbai for the last 5 years.

MACP

          When MACP was implemented, many of us got 4600 GP and 4800 GP through. But later Railway Board withdrew all those promotions with an unlawful clarification. Since our protests were not considered by the Railway administration we were forced to resort to legal remedy. The illegal clarification order was set aside by many CATs;  Sadistic Railway management is trying to deny justice by way of appeal in higher courts. But in their attempt to turn down our arguments in court, they were forced to order promotion increments on promotion to Loco Pilot (Pass) and Loco Pilot (Mail). This alone brings an increase of Rs.1000 to Rs.3000 for all Loco Pilot (Mail) and Loco Pilot (Pass). But the Railway Board did not allow promotional increment for promotion to LP (Shg) and LP (Goods) as those issues were not raised before the court in MACP case. This anomaly is yet to be resolved.    

7^th CPC

          We were placing the job attribute, responsibilities, nature of work etc. in detail before successive pay commissions in our own words and justifications.  But before 7^th CPC, we had hope on the findings of various committees such as HPC on HOER, HLSRC etc.    HPC had very clearly stated in para 4.3.1.3 on page no. 67 & 68 as follows. “The running staff is a distinct category among the Railway workers. The special features of their job make them distinct from other categories of staff”. Accordingly the pay of running staff should be distinct from others. HLSRC had found that the hi-tech locomotives in service demand technically qualified operators and recommended to recruit Diploma holders as ALPs.

Clarion Call

          We have to achieve level 6 for ALPs and have to break the false concept prevailing among   the Railway management and  successive pay commissions that apex scale in  running cadre should be at one stage below the group C apex scale.

          We have to achieve the following scales of pay.

Asst. Loco Pilot      GP 4200                Level 6

LP/Shg                  GP 4600                Level 7

LP/Goods              GP 4800                Level 8

LP/Pass                 GP 5400                Level 9

LP/Mail                  GP 5400 (Group B)         Level 10

 Our various agitations on allowances

Though the running allowance scheme continues from Company Railways regime, prior to 1980 revision  of  Running allowance was done after every pay commissions without scientific analysis.  Many struggles by the Loco  Running staff resulted in the Railways and the Government of India in accepting our genuine demands which was based on scientific analysis and finally led to the formation of the Running Allowance Committee.

RAC1980 identified two elements in running allowance, ie. Pay element and TA element and somehow quantified them through some guess work. RAC 1980 derived a methodology (formula) to calculate rate of Running Allowance. Accordingly revision of running allowance was done for the past two decades based on the RAC 1980 formula despite our disputes over various factors we accepted the RAC 1980 methodology.

After 6^th CPC, Railways constituted a committee under the Chairmanship of Adv(IR) along with five RB Officials and two General Secretaries of NFIR and AIRF. It has submitted its recommendation on 25.11.2008. The committee vide Para14, assumed that the TA / DA rate at Rs. 210/-, and took the minimum of pay band (PB2) and calculated rate of running allowance as rs 160/- per 100 kms but subsequently  TA / DA has been released fixing Rs. 340/- for the grade pay of Rs. 4200/-.  So instead of Rs. 210 an amount of Rs. 340 should have been taken as TA for fixing the running allowance rate.  In the case of Assistant Loco Pilots the increase in TA rates is from Rs. 55 to Rs.210 i.e, 3.81 times. Therefore the recommendation of the committee on Running Allowance to merely double the rate with effect from 01/09/2008  is unjust, discriminatory and totally unacceptable to us.

What should have been the actual rate after 7^th CPC ?

We have to retrieve our actual rate eligible to us right from the early 1970s. To gain a running allowance almost equal in quantum with pay that existed in 1973, a Loco Pilot (Mail) shall get a monthly allowance of Rs. 75000. It means the running allowance rates should raise to Rs. 900 per 100 km. HPC on HOER has correctly found and established that the job of running train is incomparable to any other jobs. So it is natural and logic that not only the nature of job and responsibilities of the running staff are distinct from other category of staff, but their pay shall also be incomparable to all other posts in Railways. We should convince this fact to our fellow running men in recognized unions first and clear the wrong notion of non existed and non existing inverse relation of pay hike and reduction in pay element.

Central govt employees again betrayed by NDA govt., Date of effect from 01-01-2016 and restoration of rate of HRA denied. Mass protest and struggles are required.

Campaign for the rights,

with convincing justifications,

fight to achieve.

AILRSA Central Working Committee meeting held at new Delhi on 27.04.2017 decided to organize campaign meeting in different divisions participated by Central Leaders. As a part of that program SWR zone is organizing 3 meetings in following dates:

20.07.17 from 10 hrs at Bengaluru

21.07.17 from 10 hrs at Hubli

22.07.17 from 10 hrs at Arsikere

Com. T Hanumaiah-Central Vice President AILRSA, Com SK Choubey, General Secretary, AILRSA East Coast Railway, Com. KAS Mani, Central Vice President, Com KC James Central Joint Secretary General, Com MM Roly, Central Organising Secretary, Com VR Prakash, Zonal President, South Zone will be addressing the meetings.

Working Class Unity Zindabad                         AILRSA Zindabad.