A whopping Rs 2028.57 crore will be paid to 11,72,240 non-gazetted Indian Railways employees as productivity-linked bonus for 78 days. The same has been approved by the Union Cabinet on 3 October, given the record performance of the Railways during 2023-24.
All employees, including loco pilots, track maintainers, station masters, guards, supervisors, technicians, helpers, pointsman, ministerial staff as well as Group C staff will benefit from this bonus. The bonus amount payable per eligible staff members cannot exceed Rs.17,951 for 78 days.
The bonus, which it is hoped, will act as a reward for the hard work of the employees and will motivate them to do better.
Railways carried a record cargo of well over 15,00 million tonnes and over 6 billion passengers, thanks to the investment made by the Central government to improve the operations and efficiency of the Railways.
The productivity-linked reward (PLR) scheme for the staff of the major port authorities and dock labour boards has also been revised for 2020-21 to 2025-26. The same will benefit about 20,704 employees at a cost of Rs 200 crore.
The revision will see the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways giving more importance to the performance of specific ports while calculating the PLR, instead of weighing the performance all India.
Presently, 50 per cent weightage is given for all India performance and for specific performance of the port. With the revision, the all India port performance will drop to 40 per cent, while the weightage for port -specific performance will go up from 50 to 55 per cent and further to 60 per cent.