ALL INDIA RAILWAY ENGINEERS' FEDERATION (AIREF)

(MEMORANDUM-2009 )

Hon’ble Minister for Railways .

Government of India

Rail Bhawn, New Delhi.

(Through Shri Mukeshbhai Gadhavi , Hon’ble M.P.(L.S.)

Sub:-  Memorandum of long pending demands of Sub- ordinate Engineers.

Hon’ble Madam,

            All India Railway Engineers federation (AIREF) is grateful for your initiative on safety matter. Our old Associations, DEAR (Diploma Engineers Association of Railway) & EAIR (Engineers Association of Indian Railways) hold two Safety Seminars at Kolkata in your gracious presence as chief guest during your last tenure as MR, we are very much apprised that our MR has taken another initiative on safety.

All India Railway Engineers federation (AIREF) is now our apex sole representative body of about 1 lakhs of subordinate Engineers working in the Railways to establish safety by maintaining track, bridges, Coaches, Engines, OHE & all the railway assets. Zonal Railway Engineers Association & Production Units Engineers Association have been affiliated with AIREF.

Even after the several memorandums  to Ex. Hon’ble MR / MOSR / CRB through Central Ministers, Members of Parliament and other prominent political dignitaries, the recommendation (with zero financial implication ) regarding subordinate Engineers by various committee on Railway Safety (Like Justice Khanna, Vanchoo, Sikri Committee), have not been given due attention in the Railway Ministry since long back, and hence there are great humiliation and frustration among the Railway’s safety Engineers, because of-

1.      Subordinate Engineers joins as JE in Railway in Group ‘C’ category and retiring with Group ‘C’ status due to lower promotional prospects to become Gr. ‘B’ and ‘A’ Engineer.

By the SCPC  class IV staff have been upgraded to class-III & class IV classification abolished & DOPT had recommended Gr. ‘B’  for all staff of PB-2 vide its gazette notification no. 605 of 9 April 2009, but Railway is delaying its implementation.

JEs other than in Railway(CPWD/MES) will now be classified as group ‘B’ as per the DOPT notification, but why a favourable recommendation of SCPC yet not been accepted by the railway ?  Already group ‘B’ staff strength is very little (less than 1/10^th) i.e. 0.5% compared to 5.3% of all Central Govt. employee average, hence need to upgrade status of subordinate Engineers as Group ‘B’.

It is quite unjustified to classify Degree / Diploma Engineers at par with existing          class-IV categories,  when SCPC recommended  separate class for PB-1 & PB-2 employee i.e. Group C & Group B.

2.   Continuous down fall in pay scales of JE since 3^rd Pay Commission and up-graded pay scale to other similar non technical categories but Subordinate Engineers are left behind.

2.      SCPC had also made great injustice with Subordinate Engineers in Railway, where in non-technical / supporting / welfare staffs have been awarded higher grade pay than executive technical cadres / category of subordinate Engineers. There is no function of supporting / welfare staff to run the railway but  they  are  required  for welfare of staff like Nurse / Teachers & to upkeep accounts / legal documents as a supporting category like SO/SSO(A/C) & Legal staff.     

4.   Since, there is no participation in the policy making process from Subordinate Engineers side being unrecognized federation / Zonal Railway Engineers Association of Subordinate Engineers in Railway.

      We are being treated at par with labour or class IV people in Railway’s trade union policy, where as several Safety committee ( Justice Khanna, Wankchoo, Sikri, RSRC, RRC) have given recommendations for separate recognized Association of technical Supervisor (i.e. Subordinate Engineers). The recommendation of thousands of Crores expenditure have been accepted & materialized but recommendation on human resource without any financial implication have not been finalized till now.

5.   Due to Excluded classification in HOER, we are bound to work 24 Hours without any compensation or monitory  benefits in the Railway.

7.   We are sole responsible functionaries to establish safety in Railway System as we face maximum punishments in this account under DAR policy of Railway and hence dealt with great mental pressure, but we have not been provided financial power of just Rs. 1/-  on other part .

8.      JE in Railway not availing facilities of Ist Class Journey ever after 10-15 year of service but his subordinates are enjoying the facilities at  a lower pay scale due to defective pass rule & journey entitlement.

9.      Grade of XEN have been awarded to JEs of other Central Govt Deptt. Like CPWD, MES etc & time scales of XEN provided in the state Govt. like in UP, Uttaranchal, Bihar, Jharkhand for their JE, but JE’s of Railways have not been provided grade of XEN even in ACP in Vth & VI^th CPC .

In view of above,  Federation humbly call upon your kind attention towards the injustice with sub-ordinate Engineers of Railways and requested you to bless with few words writing to consider our following long pending demands on generous grounds by the Railway Ministry.

1.                  Recognition of A.I.R.E.F.

Indian Railway is the biggest Engineering Organization, where approximate one Lac sub- ordinate Engineers are working, but there is no recognized federation of sub-ordinate Engineers in Railways, to represent the voice of these safety Engineers, where as such associations of Junior Engineers are in CPWD, P&T, MES, AIR etc. &  all other Departments of Central Government including in the most of State Governments, where  these unions are functioning properly with their right and responsibilities.

Justice H. R. Khanna committee has also strongly recommended that Railway supervisor should be promoted to form their own Federation/ Association to represent their interest and grievances. The Railway Reform Committee, (RRC), Railway accident Inquiry committee (RAIC) 1968, 1978  and Firozabad accident Inquiry committee / RSRC have also recommended for separate platform for sub- ordinate Engineers/Technical Supervisors.

RSRC’s recommendation that ‘Supervisors should not allowed to join labour unions and permitted to form their own association, to represent their interest and grievances.’ has been repeated in Annexure ‘B’ of Part –II, (which reiterated from Part-I) but it has been denied by Rly. due to provisions of Current Trade Union Act and remarked that issue may be dealt separately,  to amend the provisions under trade union Act.

Subordinate Engineers are defined as cutting edge of management being part of management & being supervisor, may not governed by labour laws but it is shameful to Railway  to treat them at par with the class-IV (Group ‘D’ ) people under his trade union policy. Labour union’s attitude is entirely against the technical supervisor and treating them at par with the administration and creating humiliation, injustice with them. There is no match in the problem and grievances and status  of Sub. Engineers with the other, hence many Central Govt. Deptts .(CPWD/ MES/ P&T ) and all State Govt. deptt. have given recognition to the associations of the Subordinate Engineers separately and not treating them as labours like in Railways.

Our submission in above regard is that-

1.      If recommendation of safety committee is partially been accepted and federation/ affiliated Associations of Subordinate Engineers are recognized by the Railway, then Sub-ordinate Engineers will either automatically leave the labour unions or otherwise staff other than technical supervisor will not allow supervisors to join labour union, hence motive of this recommendation will be achieved, he will then not be involve in labour affairs as pointed out in different committee recommendation.

  2.         If the trade union Act is the only hurdle then the second option may be adopted by providing gazetted group ‘B’ status to the subordinate Engineer as recommended by SCPC and as per the gazette notification no. 605 dated 9 April 09 circulated by DOPT. By providing group ‘B’ status, the subordinate Engineer (technical Supervisor) will automatically be debarred from joining unions and than a generous demand of Rly. Engineers will also be fulfilled, for which they are struggling since long back. Such status has already been given by several Central Govt. Deptt. / State Govt. to their Junior Engineers either in initial grade or in time bound pattern, and after SCPC all JE (PB-2) will get Group B status, hence to provide parity all JE has to be provided Group B status, to avoid another anomaly.

3.         It will be easy to accept any one or both the above two options, other wise it has to be pursued to amend clause of Trade Union Act through Parliament for the railways , as this recommendation is continuously repeated by several safety committee since 1968 but till such time no positive efforts / work has been done towards implementation of these recommendations.

5.         In the present system in Railway, there are only two recognized labour unions (federation), having huge burden to represent all around of 700 category of class IV and class III employees of different departments / cadres, two cast based unions, one is representing SC & ST employees & other one is representing OBC Rly. Employees, even RPF Employees Association (i.e. Railway’s army) has also been given recognition by the Shri  Ninish Kumar (Ex. Minister for Railways), similarly Promottee officers, Class-I Railway officers and many other associations under Rly. Board have also been given recognition but it is regretted to point out that the cutting edge of management or middle management of Railways i.e. Association of subordinate Engineers are still not considered for recognition despite of several committee recommendations for improvement in Railway system and to improve safety.    

In view of above, to ensure Railway safety and for technical development & improvement in Railway system, it is mandatory to provide recognition to the Associations / Federation of sub-ordinate Engineers i. e. Zonal Railway Engineers Associations / All India Railway Engineers Federation i.e. functioning to represent Subordinate Engineers since 1989 & come in to existence in current structure by merger of  Diploma Engineers Association of Railways (DEAR) / Engineers Association of Indian Railway (EAIR) during 2000.

2.   Gazetted Status to all JE/AE(SE/SSE) with std. designation

Non Implementation of gazetted status to Section Engineers in spite of  recommended by DOPT in 5^th CPC and hence 5^th pay commission has  criticized in its report that Railway is the worst most in promotion avenues for subordinate Engineers. All Central Government departments including state Govts. except Railways have granted gazetted status to its subordinate Engineers working in the grade Rs.6500-10500 and above. In Audit deptt. Affiliated with Railways there Jr. Audit officer working in Gr. 6500-10500 is having gazetted status, therefore it is a needs of time to provide gazetted status to all JE/ Asstt. Engineer (Section Engineers/ Sr. Section Engineers ) and time bound pay scale up to JA grade in ACP scheme, if not promoted in normal course.

The 5^th pay commission has given the clear recommendation that Junior Engineers & Asstt. Engineer are the standard designation for promotion policies from group ‘C’ Engineer to group ‘B’ gazetted Engineer. But due to present policy the  person who join as class III sub- ordinate Engineer (JE) in Indian Railways are retiring as class- III sub-ordinate Engineer (Max. SSE) due to lack of promotions facilities in Railways. Following table showing the Promotion Pattern in Central Govt. Engineering Departments from Group ‘C’ to Group ‘B’ are as follows.

( Data from Vth pay Commission. Report)

Our Federation demands for time bound promotion / time scales for sub- ordinate Engineers up to J.A grade in the pattern of other Central Government Departments like in CPWD, P&T, MES, Doordarshan and other State Govt. Department like Himachal Pradesh, Panjab, Hariyana,  UP, Uttaranchal, MP, Bihar & Jharkhand etc., they have left behind the Railway in promotional prospect of JE.

Advise & demand- (Railway may attract good academic candidate to join in Sub-ordinate Engineering Service by providing better prospects through MACPS. i.e. provision of time scale at 8/16/24 years of service of AE/DE/SE with post )

A  COMPARISON OF SECTION ENGINEER WITH OTHERS

Subordinate Engineers of Railways in Civil, Electric, Signal, Telecom Mech. Deptt. etc working hard & round the clock through out the year, for the maintenance Track, OHE, locos, Electrical Sub Station, carriage and wagons for  trains, under ground Lines and Signaling and Tele Communication, whether it is rains, winter or summer. They are classified as excluded category in the HOER, and hence bound to be ready 24 hours on calling for the work. They works continuously day and night  without taking care of themselves or their family, Govt. has not recognized their Federation to solve their grievances on table , hence government has to take  pain to solve their grievances.

            Railway employees, who are not directly in touch with the train safety, are availing more scale / pay and facilities, in comparison of subordinate (Safety) Engineers of Railways. Many states Govt. like AP, HP, Punjab and Haryana, MP etc. has given the higher pay scale in comparison to the Railway, even DMRC (Metro Railway) has given one grade higher to their JE/ SE in fresh recruitment.

           Sub ordinate Engineers were getting higher scale/ pay in 1^st  pay commission & equal with many cadre in 3^rd pay commission  but now they are getting less scale/ pay in comparison to others non-technical staff in the same department, these discrepancies can be seen in the table shown above. Presently even non-qualified mistries / MCM has been merge with the grade pay of JE-(GP-4200) in Railway.

5. 1^ST Class pass for JE-II/ JE-I (Proposed as JE) 

·         At present all staff recruited before 11/10/87 are enjoying Ist class pass at pay Rs.5375/- in grade Rs. 4500-7000, where as our JE of grade (PR) 5000-8000 and (PR) 5500-9000 are not availing such facilities due to system error and defective policies.

·         In Railway, the staff nurse is availing facilities of Ist class pass at  the pay scale of JE-II  i.e. in grade (PR) Rs. 5000-8000, then why JE may not be consider in same manner?

·         In all Central Govt. Deptt. & state Govt staff having grade pay Rs. 4200 are entitled for traveling in Ist class, while move on LTC / tours, as per SCPC recommendation.

·         There are only 1 or 2 %  JE’s, who are not availing facilities of Ist class pass, in comparison to the Railway employee enjoying facilities of Ist class pass. Hence financial implication on provision of Ist class pass to JE-II is very little, hence it will not effect on  Railway Budget.

·          JE in Railway has special status being controller / In-charge of labour, and having no. of subordinates under him and hence may be treated as special case also. It  is quite painful for a in-charge to have II^nd class entitlement, where as it’s subordinate staff are entitle in I^st class .

·         Financial implications on provision of Ist class pass to JE  is very little, in comparison to the concessions / subsidy  announced every year during Railway budget for the passengers of different category of society like student, unemployed youth, villagers, sportsmen, award winners, disabled person, senior citizen and many other concession holders.

·         Junior Engineers either may be classified in special category being Supervisor for pass entitlement  or relax the limit of Ist class so that JE will be entitle in Ist Class at Joining.     

Federation demands to provide Ist class pass for all JE at entry level to remove frustration among them and provide such social status for which they deserved and was not given in Railways,  for their moral boost up.

6.      Abolition of 3 tier structure for Assistant  Divisional Engineers in Railway .

There is no justification clarified for the three different grade  pay of Assistant Divisional/ Executive Engineers i.e. 4800, 5400 of PB-2 & GP Rs.5400 for PB-3. As per present practice of work distribution, all the above grade ADEN/AXEN are doing the same work. They can be deputed at any construction work, site, control office, sections, colonies, stations, shops, depots, factory, special works etc. according to the working capacity of individual person, not as per grade. It is regretted that no other Central Government department has these type three stages for the similar working. In CPWD & Most of the State Govt. and Central Govt Deptt. are providing Std. promotion policy of JE to AE and than to Executive Engineer, which should be implemented in Railways also by removing unwanted Grade pay from the structure of pay. 

No manual, code in Railway describe/ define the work for the three grade structure of ADEN & hence it is quite feasible to abolish unnecessary two / three grade given to the class II Engineers .

It is therefore proposed to provided following structure and pay scales for parity with medical staff.

Federation demands a land slide change to keep JE ( 50%) & AE ( 50%) pattern, as recommended by the Fifth Pay Commission and as already exists in other Central / State Government departments, by abolishing unnecessary more grade pays for the same post.

7. Career Planning of subordinate Engineers including Drawing/ Design/ DMS/CMT/IT(EDP Staff)     

            At present, there is no career planning for the sub ordinate Engineers, who join as Junior Engineers in grade  Rs.4200 (Class-II-Proposed) and more than 95 % subordinate Engineers will retire in GP Rs.5400 (PB-2) in Class-II (Proposed) after 30-35 years service under MACPS.

            Similarly, a Degree Engineer joins in grade pay Rs. 4600 having a very few chance to be Group A due to present promotion policy. In current term, a vast difference has been created by our policy makers to retain such candidates within the class III level.

In MACPs, Diploma Engineers never entitle for Group A grades and as such Degree Engineers shall only be entitle for Gr. A initial grade after 30 year of service, due to unnecessary, nonfunctional, unjustified promotional grades provided in the hierarchy of Gr. B Engineers, hence there are very few prospects of current class III Engineers for their promotion. In Railway, there are a great exploitation of Subordinate Engineers compared to the other Central Govt. Deptt. and state Govt. in the promotional avenue, their duty rosters under HOER, taken up under DAR rules due to responsibility of safety, increasing work load due to increasing of trains / assets day by day and reduction in man power at all level even after increasing the traffic density every year.   It is therefore, proper time to provide the due justice to Railway Engineers to save / safeguard the position before blast. It is suggested following module regarding promotion policy.

Suggestion for career planning / time Scale of subordinate Engineers shown below

 Note :-● 20 %  Engg graduate quota will be made available in Grade pay Rs. 5400(PB-3).

●  UPSC Engg. Services qualified Engineers (25 % ) should be entitle and entered  in Gr. Rs.6600 after probation with the post of Asstt. Divisional Engineer/DEN.

●  LDCE Examination has to be conducted  through UPSE for 50% Promotional posts in Gr. Pay Rs. 6600 ( Gr. A ), & remaining 50% post be filled from experienced Engineers according to their seniority by abolishing LGS examination.

Apart from above, some important items repeatedly represented to  Rly. Bd but have not been considered from Govt. side, hence still pending and need to take the decisions from Central Govt./ Railway Ministry to maintain industrial peace as follows:

(a)   Project / risk / planning / design allowances (Proposed @ 30%) as recommended by V ^th  pay commission. Excluded category allowance @ 30% for all classified employee including officers to trackman, which is must to compassionate the terms.

(b)   Raise the ceiling limit of pay for bonus and include Railway officers in the scheme.

(c)   Supervisor (JE ) & supervised (MCM / PWS) should not be in the same grade pay i.e. Gp.Rs.4200 as a principle.

(d)   Separate rest house/ club / technical library facilities for subordinate  Engineers like wise Railway Officer, as present conditions are worst. Allow officer rest houses / club to PB-2 employees, which is reserved for the officers at present.

(e)   Abolition of selection post system in (PB-2) Gr. ‘B’ cadre of Engineers, since diploma / degree Engineers are recruited through all India competition conducted by RRB & adopt time bound scale pattern for JE as in many States / Central Govt. Deptt. and also given to Degree Engineers recruited in Gr. ‘A’ Engineers, in their further  promotion, to avoid case of corruptions and transparency in system.

(f)     Inclusion of  father and mother in the definition of family in Railway, to suit Indian culture & to provide social justice to parents since Indian railway has not amended the rules framed by British Govt. till now, it is also necessary for a employee to fulfill the need of their old age parents. Re-define family in term of current social need of having single child.

We hope that honourable Madam, will be kind enough to accept our justified demands to encourage the sub ordinate Engineers ( who are the back bone of Railway’s safety system),  for more better performance in their technical work.

The federation of subordinate Engineers of Railway shall always be grateful to the Hon’ble  Railway Minister, if matter  is considered on merits and law of justice, with your kind blessings, since it is appropriate time when deprived cadre of the Railway’s Subordinate Engineers may be given the due justice, since most of the  recommendations of the 6^th  Pay Commission has to be accepted & need to be implemented  by the Railway Board only.

With kind regards.

                      Your Sincerely

                                    (Er. A.K.Tyagi )

Copy for kind information and necessary action please.

1.                  Hon’ble Chairman, Railway Board, Rail Bhawan, New Delhi

2.                  Hon’ble Member Staff. Railway Board, Rail Bhawan, New Delhi

3.                  Hon’ble Finance Commissioner, Railway Board, Rail Bhawan, Newi.

4.                  Hon’ble Executive Director (Pay Commission), Rilway Board, ail Bhawan, New Delhi

 (Er. A.K.Tyagi )

Secretary General