July 10, 2019
Kalyan Banerjee asks a Supplementary Question on Railway Workforce
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Thank you, Sir. I have gone through the replies. Apart from the permanent employees, the Indian Railways are engaging many contractual labourers. The services that these contractual labourers are rendering are menial in nature. Law speaks; Contract Labour and Regulation Act says that any job which is menial in character, there contract labour cannot be employed. And the judgement of the Supreme Court is this, the skill authorities state that you may consider and formulate a scheme and appoint this contractual in place.
Now, IRCTC is an organisation under you, which is an article of State, the catering service there almost eighty per cent staff are contractual workers. Those who do the sweeping in the train compartment are also contractual labourers.
My question is to the Honourable speaker that whether you will abolish this system of contractual labourers where their services is menial in character and appoint permanent employees itself?
If you read Chapter 25 of the Railway Manual, you will find there, if an employee works for 120 days, he or she gets the status of temporary and if he works for five years, they get the status of permanent employee.
