Orders for 1000 wagons have been placed with central PSUs Burn Standard and Braithwaite & Co, which have been taken over by the Railways, Union Minister Mamata Banerjee said here today.
"Railways have placed orders for 1,000 wagons with both companies. Order for 500 wagons have been placed with Braithwaite yesterday and today, orders for 500 wagons have been placed with Burn Standard," the Railway minister told reporters here.
Stating that steps would be taken to protect the interest of workers, she said that railway officials would visit the two companies to assess needs of the employees.
She said the pay scale of workers of Burn Standard would be brought at par with that of the Braithwaite.
Currently Burn Standard workers get lower wages than employees of the other firm.
She, however, did not elaborate on the wage structure of employees of both the firms.
For this, the Union Cabinet has sanctioned Rs 20 crore, the minister said.
Burn Standard currently has 1,500 employees on its rolls and Braithwaite around 500.
Burn Standard, at present, has manufacturing units at Howrah and Burnpur, where wagons are produced.
Although its installed capacity is about 1,500 wagons per year, it manufactures only about 800-900 units annually.
Braithwaite, on the other hand, has two wagon manufacturing units in Kolkata and a steel foundry.
