Why are railway workers protesting in Dhaka

Railway workers have long been protesting in demand of permanent employment along with the regularisation of their jobs. Thousands are suffering from lack of job security as instead of employing them the Railways authority is opting to appoint temporary workers by outsourcing.

Contractual employees and workers of the Bangladesh Railway blocked the rail line at the FDC Rail Gate signal near Karwan Bazar in the capital, halting train communication with the rest of the country.

In early July, some 8,000 temporary workers of Bangladesh Railway lost their jobs despite an acute manpower shortage in the state-run rail transport agency, citing that there is no allocation for them in the budget of FY24.

Ignoring the High Court orders on multiple writ petitions to regularise jobs of 1,000 TLR employees, Bangladesh Railway is going to appoint temporary workers by outsourcing instead of regularising long-term temporary employees. 

The railway currently has about 25,000 employees against approval for the recruitment of 47,637 manpower. That means about 22,000 posts remain vacant in the state agency.

Due to manpower shortage, the railway has been running its operation for a long time with temporary recruitment of fifth-class employees on a Temporary Labor Recruitment (TLR) (no work, no wage) basis.

According to Railway data, more than 8,000 temporary workers have been working in various positions including Gatekeeper, P-Man, Wayman, and Khalasi for as long as 3 to 10 years. Their wages on a daily basis range from Tk500-575.

Leaders of these temporary workers said the railway is not regulating these temporary workers even after working continuously for long. Rather it issued a circular for fresh recruitment in the post.

Due to the gatekeeper crisis, around 1,800 temporary gatekeepers were recruited in the two regions in 2016 under a quality improvement project. Currently, 1,505 of them are working. 

On 10 May, the railway issued a circular for the recruitment of Project Recruited Gatekeepers/Gatemen to the permanent vacant posts under the revenue sector. It says project workers who have completed 2 years continuously are eligible for applying for the posts. 

However, the railway authorities say the non-cadre recruitment policy of the Bangladesh Railway in 2020 does not allow the workers appointed under projects to be regularised in the revenue sector. 

The Railway Recruitment Rules-2020 envisage outsourcing (contractual) for temporary workers' recruitment. Under the outsourcing method, workers will be employed through contractors so that later they cannot demand job regularisation.

Such crisis has been continuing for years now.

In 2017, the rail ministry promised to regularise workers with more than three years in service. But in a notification in June 2022, the ministry said that no one will be retained in those posts from January next year.

The workers staged a protest in Mid October 2022. 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.