Demand for wage parity by station masters

February 25: Resentment among various sections of the railway staff over recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission seem to be increasing. Barely two weeks after motormen went on a hunger strike demanding wage parity with teachers and pharmacists, station masters sat on a dharna at Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus today to protest the `victimisation’ of their colleagues who participated in the `stay-in-strike agitation last August.

More than 50 station masters participated in the dharna, which did not affect services. According to M Ramani, secretary general of the All India Station Masters Association, the railway management had terminated the services of 15 station masters, each less than a year old in the profession, in the southern sector. And the reason stated for their dismissal was `punishment’ for participation in the agitation on August 11, 1997. The protest, wherein trains were stopped for two minutes at every station, had led to a major delay in services. The union had appealed to the CentralAdministrative Tribunal which reinstated nine of them and ordered that the rest of the cases be settled amicably.

The station masters also pointed to the difference between their pay scales and those of their subordinates as per the Pay Commission. “Yard inspectors, whom we supervise, get better pay than us,” said Ramani. The station masters fear that this disparity could lead to a confrontation between them and yard inspectors. They also want to avail of travel allowance, since they are directly involved in the running of a train.

Following the agitation in August, the railway board had set up a three member `Special Committee’, consisting of chief operational managers from the three zones. Deliberations between the committee and the union are in progress.