Rail communications across the country could come to a halt as the running staffers are set to go on an indefinite work abstention from Monday, sticking to their demands of pension and retirement benefits.
These staffers include train drivers, assistant drivers, guards and Travelling Ticket Examiners (TTE).
Speaking to The Business Post, Railway Running Staff Oikya Parishad Coordinator Mujibur Rahman said, “We met Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan on August 23, but that meeting yielded no results.
“We had made a decision on August 1 to abstain from work, and we will follow through with this plan.”
He added, “The minister had asked us to wait for 15 more days before engaging in work abstention, but could not assure any positive outcome. Besides, at that meeting, we felt that he was not sympathetic to our demands.
“We have already given them months to resolve our issues. As of Saturday, we have no more meetings scheduled with the minister. So, our demonstration will begin on schedule.
According to the staffers, from 12am of August 28, no intercity and local trains will run across the country. This will include freight train services as well.
There is already a shortage of drivers in the railway, and 1,017 drivers against 1,786 posts are working overtime to keep the trains in service. Against a total of around 3,600 posts of staffers, the Bangladesh Railway now has around 1,500 staff.
The staffers claimed that they have been waging movement since the government curtailed their pension and retirement benefits. They used to get a special overtime allowance, equal to one day's basic salary, for every eight hours' work.
After retirement, alongside their pension, they used to get 75 per cent of their total running allowance earned throughout their career.
Running staff, including train drivers, had refrained from performing their additional duties outside the scheduled time from July 23. This resulted in the cancellation of various train journeys and schedule disruptions across the country.
They cancelled their movement following assurance from the authorities.
They said since the British period, the running staffers have been getting additional benefits, and Railways have been paying salaries and allowances directly for a long time.
After the Covid-19 crisis, salaries and allowances are being paid by the Ministry of Finance through an online Integrated Budget and Accounting System - iBAS.
The finance ministry wrote a letter to the railways ministry on June 18 saying that there is no scope of giving the railways staffers such benefits through the iBAS.
Mujibur, who is coordinating the movement, said, “The finance ministry stopped their running allowance system without any discussion. The finance ministry had sent a letter on the issue to the railway ministry on November 3, 2021.
“Later, in the face of the demonstration, high-ranking railway officials – including the railway minister – had assured us that our demands will be fulfilled. On April 13 last year, the finance ministry withdrew the letter after the train services were stopped across the country due to a strike.”
He claimed that the director general of railway gave instructions to reinstate the facilities on June 11 this year. But within a week, the finance ministry objected to this again in another letter.
Mujibur added, “Due to this decision of the finance ministry, we stopped performing the additional duties from July 23. There was a standstill in the movement of cargo and local trains. However, after the assurance of the authorities, we relaxed our stance.
“We now think that the Railway authorities are not sincere about meeting our demands. They could have solved this issue by discussing this with the finance ministry, but they did not.”
