New Delhi, Apr 6 (PTI) The Railway Board has urged signal maintainers and telecom technicians across all railway zones and divisions to provide their feedback regarding challenges in the job following a rise in new joinees leaving the job.
Zonal railway officials said that following the Board’s request, they have asked the respective departments to communicate and encourage technicians to apprise the Board of their day-to-day challenges so that it helps senior officials take decisions to address the issue.
Indian Railways Signal and Telecom Maintainers’ Union (IRSTMU) said that the attrition rate among newly-joined technicians is quite high due to rising work pressure leading to mental stress and inability to cope with it.
“Roughly 50 per cent of all new joinees in the signal and telecommunication (S&T) cadre leave the job after working for a few months due to several reasons,” Alok Chandra Prakash, General Secretary, IRSTMU, told PTI.
He added, “The prominent among them is the arduous nature of work during signal failure, which further aggravates due to acute shortage of manpower, such as technicians, junior engineers and senior section engineers.” Prakash stated that during his recent meeting with senior officials in the Railway Ministry, he urged them to look into the matter seriously as the frequent drop out causing shortage and operational challenges.
According to the IRSTMU, the Board has asked all the zones to provide the exact data to understand the ground realities.
“Officials informed me that Hon’ble Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had held a meeting in mid-January this year with top officials on steps to be taken to improve the working conditions of S&T staff, especially the signal technicians.
Signal technicians said that their remuneration is disproportionate to the job risk, hence the new hires feel demotivated.
They said that S&T staff work 24×7 and receive almost no festival holidays compared to other departments’ staff.
“Therefore, pay revision should not be based only on a uniform formula but should also consider the nature of emergency duties and operational responsibilities,” signal technicians said.
They also stated that during all the previous Central Pay Commissions’ recommendations, based on which salary structure, allowances, and pension benefits were decided, certain cadres such as medical and railway operating staff were upgraded without significant changes in responsibility, while technical cadres like S&T Railway Technicians, Junior Engineers (JE) and Senior Section Engineers (SSE) were excluded despite their enhanced roles in safety, supervision, and oversight of outsourced contractual work.
“I think the Railway Ministry should also ask all the zonal railways to provide them with a number of signal staff who have been either medically decategorised or lost their lives in the past five years due to heart attack or train run over while attending signal failure,” Prakash said.
The IRSTMU has demanded that risk and operational responsibility should receive appropriate weightage for signal and telecom employees of Indian Railways in the 8th CPC.
“The guiding philosophy of the 8th CPC should emphasise the distinctive nature of government service Signal and Telecom employees of Indian Railways, valuing commitment, accountability, and constitutional responsibility,” S&T staff said. PTI JP JP SKY SKY
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