Temporary rail workers threaten countrywide train blockade

Contractual employees and workers of the Bangladesh Railway have threatened to blockade countrywide train movement from Tuesday if their jobs are not regularised.

On the second day of a sit-in at Dhaka railway office on Monday, the contractual workers made the announcement to press home their six-point demand including the job regularisation.

"We will take positions on rail lines tomorrow [Tuesday] all over the country. We will not go back to work until our demands are met," temporary rail workers' leader Mohammad Hossain told The Business Standard.

Convener of the council Delwar Hossain said they have no option left except a tougher movement as they have their backs against the wall.

The workers – mostly railway gate keepers, pointsmen, porters and other electricity, carriage and operational employees – said the authorities appointed nearly 7,000 staff on a contractual basis at various times to tackle the manpower crisis.

After recruitment, the railway authorities provided them with brief training programmes. In 2017, the rail ministry promised to regularise workers with more than three years in service. But in a notification in June this year, the ministry said that no one will be retained in those posts from January next year.

The agitating workers said the authorities suspended their wages and other payments after the notification. The workers were told that new and outsourced manpower would replace them – prompting the staffer to come to the capital to stage the ongoing demonstration.

Nannu Kazi, one of the demonstrators, said he has been working as a railway gateman on a temporary basis for eight years. For the last five months, he is not getting the monthly wage and other payments.

"Since joining, I had been hoping that my job would be regularised one day. But the railway authorities suspended the payment abruptly, let alone job regularisation," he told The Business Standard.

The agitating employees say they get Tk500 per day as the duty is almost round the clock.

Pointsman Aminul Islam, another demonstrator for job regularisation, said most of the temporary workers have served for three to 15 years and they have already crossed the age eligibility for other works.

Md Shamsul Hoque, a professor of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) and also a public transport expert, said, "The lay-off may lead to a skilled labour crisis in railway as most of the temporary workers have acquired the expertises by doing the jobs for a long time. The authorities should consider appointing them in the new recruitments on the basis of their experience."

"If required, there might be arrangements for tests to verify the skills of the employees," he told The Business Standard.

Mohammad Shafiqur Rahman, Divisional Railway Manager, said, "We have informed the higher authorities about the workers' movement. Only the ministry can take the final decision."