Railwaymen Call off Strike after Cadre Restructuring, 78 days Bonus & 7th CPC

AHMEDABAD: The strike call given by the National Federation of Indian Railwaymen and Western Railway Mazdoor Sangh was withdrawn till the December working committee meeting after the railway board recently accepted all the major demands of the unions.

On Tuesdays, the railways also accepted the last major demand for cadre restructuring. Vice -president of NFIR and WRMS J G Mahurkuar said that the unions were demanding implementation of recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission, cadre restructuring and also productivity-linked bonus for the 3.5 lakh employees.

Mahurkar said that recently the government announced accepting the pay commission suggestions and also declared 78 days productivity-linked bonus. He said that railwaymen had decided to go on a strike to press for their demand. “But since all major demands have been accepted, we have deferred the decision of strike till the committee meets again in December. For the time being we have called off the strike.”

He said that the cadre restructuring will benefit 3.5 lakh employees of the railways who would be promoted. He said that this was a long-pending demand and a committee was also. Finally on Tuesday, the government accepted the last demand. He further said that with the restructuring there would lead to increase in the number of vacancies for the higher cadre, while the same in lower cadre would decrease.