The Cabinet is likely to discuss a railway ministry’s proposal for productivity linked bonus for its employees in a meeting scheduled to be held tomorrow. The railway ministry had recently assured productivity-linked bonus (PLB) to its employees in the grade pay ranging from Rs 1,800 to Rs 4,600, thus entailing an additional burden of Rs 600-700 crore on the finances of the public-sector employer.
The assurance was given by Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi after he held extensive discussion with various employees’ federation a few days back, officials said. The Union Cabinet is also expected to discuss a proposal forward by the agriculture ministry to set up the Norman Borlaug Institute for South Asia to undertake advanced research on agricultural practices.
Named after famous agronomist and noble laureate Borlaug, the institute is proposed to be set up in Haryana in collaboration with Mexico-based International Wheat and Maize Improvement Centre (CIMMYT).
Meanwhile, on the railway employees bonus, officials said PLB is linked to NTKM (net tonne km traffic) earning divided by the number of employees.
Though there has been an 83.37 per cent increase in passenger traffic and 74.95 per cent increase in goods traffic in terms of kilometres covered between 2000-2001 and 2008-2009, staff strength has been reduced by 10.29 per cent. The PLB paid approximately to 13 lakh employees will amount to Rs 8,975 per employee.
According to the Bonus Act, the maximum bonus allowed to the employee for 30 days is Rs 3,500. Actually, the federations had demanded 80 days’ bonus and had asked for PLB to the employees equal to their per day salary earning.