Now, railways union demands OROP

Says railway employees’ work is just as ‘hazardous, risky and complex’ as defence personnel’s

With the government giving in-principle approval to the one rank-one pension scheme for defence personnel, workers at Indian Railways -- the country’s largest employer -- are asking for similar pension benefit, arguing their duties too are ‘hazardous, risky and complex’.

Railway employees work at over 8,000 railway stations covering more than 65,000 km of tracks and over 85 per cent of railway employees work in remote locations and extremist-affected areas, the National Federation of Indian Railwaymen, representing over 90 per cent of the railways’ 1.3 million strong workforce, said.

“On an average, 800 railway employees get killed per year in the course of duty and nearly 3,000 sustain injuries at work,” M Raghavaiah, general secretary of NFIR said.

The defence veterans had called off their fast-unto-death after the OROP principle was accepted on Saturday, but said they would continue a scaled-down relay hunger strike as some issues remain, including the annual revision of salaries.

Raghavaiah appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to scrap the New Pension Scheme in railways and grant OROP to employees ‘as has been agreed to in the case of retired defence personnel’.

According to NFIR, the government has subjected railway workers to injustice by governing them under NPS with effect from January 2004.

Their demand for abolition of the scheme remains unresolved even after former Rail Minister Mallikarjun Kharge’s promise of exemption of rail workers from the scheme.

The federation is now busy sending letters to the Prime Minister, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu in support of the ‘genuine demand’ for extending OROP to railways.

‘SCRAP NEW PENSION SCHEME’

• M Raghavaiah, general secretary of NFIR has appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to scrap the New Pension Scheme in railways and grant OROP to employees ‘as has been agreed to in the case of retired defence personnel’
• According to NFIR, the government has subjected railway workers to injustice by governing them under NPS with effect from January 2004
• Their demand for abolition of the scheme remains unresolved even after former Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge’s promise of exemption of rail workers from NPS

Image: People travel on a crowded passenger train in Lucknow. Photograph: Pawan Kumar/Reuters