Payment of Bonus Act & PLB to Railway Employees – A Brief Note By KV Ramesh

Payment of Bonus Act & PLB to Railway Employees – A Brief Note By KV RameshTHE PAYMENT OF BONUS ACT, 1965 & PLB TO RAILWAYMEN

PAYMENT OF BONUS ACT, 1965 & AMENDMENTS THEREOF

• 
  Minimum bonus 8.33% of the salary/wage of an employee.
• Maximum bonus including productivity linked bonus shall not exceed 20% of the salary/wage of an employee.
• Previous amendment of 2007 was notified on 13 December 2007 and made effective from 1st April, 2006.
• Minimum bonus of 8.33% of (Rs. 3500/- X 12= Rs. 42,000/-) is approximately Rs. 3500/-.
• 20% of above referred Rs. 42,000/- is Rs. 8,400/-. However, the limit is given as Rs. 8,300/-.

Details of amendments to the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965:

 

a) The output for a year is reckoned by the equated net tonne kilometres by adding together:-

i) Total goods revenue net tonne kilometres.

ii) Non-suburban passenger kilometres converted by a factor of 0.076.

iii) Suburban passenger kilometres converted by a factor of 0.053.

b) The input is taken as the non-gazetted staff strength (excluding
RPF/RPSF personnel), increased by the incremental increase/decrease in
capital (over average of last three years) during the year.

C) Highest PLB amount of 78 days’ wages was paid for the financial years 2010-11, 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15.

d) The wage calculation ceiling prescribed for payment of PLB to the
eligible non-gazetted railway employees is 3500/- p.m. The maximum
amount payable per eligible railway employee is Rs. 8975 for 78 days.

• Amount paid as bonus never shown meaningful increase over last 15 years.
• Only between 2006-07 and 2007-08 there was a visible increase in bonus amount.
• If bonus is linked with inflation at the rate of average 12% per
  year from 2001-02, it should have become Rs.24000 now, even without
  considering any productivity improvement.
• 
  Bill passed in Lokshaba is a very late action taken by the Government.
• Railways should not try to put any rider on this very late action.

Source: IRTSA