The ministry of railways had earlier presented a proposal in front of the Union Cabinet to clear the productivity-linked bonus for non-gazetted railway employees. In 2019-20, the Indian Railways had given its nearly 11.58 lakh non-gazetted employees a bonus of 78 days. The total cost of the bonus was estimated at Rs 2,081.68 crore, the Cabinet said.
In 2020, Indian Railways had fixed the wage calculation ceiling prescribed for payment of the bonus at Rs 7,000 per month. The maximum amount payable per eligible railway employee was set at ₹17,951 for 78 days.
The productivity-linked bonus on Indian Railway covers all non-gazetted railway employees (excluding RPF/RPSF personnel) who are spread across the country. Usually the Cabinet pays the bonus every year before Dusshera or Puja holidays. The decision of the Cabinet shall be implemented before the holidays for this year as well. “For the year 2020-21 also productivity-linked bonus amount equivalent to 78 days’ wages will be paid which is expected to motivate the employees for working towards improving the performance of the Railways,” Union Cabinet said.
Explaining how productivity-linked bonus is calculated, Union Cabinet said,
“The PLB has been paid as per formula approved by the Cabinet in its meeting held on 23.9.2000 for the years 1998-99 to 2013-14 (except 2002-03 to 2004-05 when slight changes were done with respect to Capital Weightage and Staff Strength). This formula was input : output based where output was reckoned in terms of equated net tonne kilometres and input was reckoned as the non-gazetted staff strength (excluding RPF/RPSF personnel) modified by Capital Weightage.”
Indian Railways was the first department under the central government where the concept of productivity-linked bonus was first introduced in 1979-80. “The main consideration at that time was the important role of the Railways as an infrastructural support in the performance of the economy as a whole. In the overall context of Railway working, it was considered desirable to introduce the concept of productivity-linked bonus as against the concept of bonus on the lines of ‘The Payment of Bonus Act -1965’,” Cabinet said. With the timely suggestion of All India Railwaymen’s Federation and National Federation of Indian Railwaymen, the productivity-linked bonus was evolved over the period. The scheme envisages a review every three years.
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