Motorman Strike : Why and for what?

Well the current ongoing strike by the motormen of the mumbai local railways has brought almost the entire city to a halt. The motormen are demanding better work conditions, weekly leave and an increase in salary and allowances. And they are threatening to continue the strike until some decision is taken about their stand. The government on the other hand has resorted to some knee jerk reactions like arresting about 170 motormen, suspending a few (40) of them, and an intent to invoke ESMA ( essential service maintenance act) which would make the strike illegal. Also the government has made some emergency provisions that allow for about 15% of the normal trains to be run. I tried to dig through the noise and clutter and culled these things from various sites:

Normally drivers in the Indian railway are recruited for the post of assistant driver, with ITI certificate as minimum qualification. An assistant driver in turn gets promotion to the passenger driver. On the other hand motorman are either directly recruited (with minimum qualification as1st class B.Sc. with math and physics or 3 year diploma in specific branches in Engineering) or recruited through the promotion of main line drivers. The railway board letter no E(NG) II /85/RC2/70 dated 4.1.1990 states that the motorman should be promoted from the passenger driver. In spite of this the motorman is granted the scale of Passenger Driver This is a serious compromise with the safety of Railways. 5.3 Non provision of Assistant driver/co driver. Trains of Indian railways are provided with two drivers in some important trains there are driver and co-driver to share the work and the job responsibility whereas in Mumbai suburban the sole operational responsibility is rested upon the single person that is motorman. This important point of independent responsibility has been ignored while assigning the grade off motorman. Dual charge allowance should also be granted to the motormen. 5.4 Importance of Mumbai suburban – In running cadre the hierarchy of posts has been decided considering the relative importance of trains worked by the staff. For example Goods train driver passenger train driver and mail/express train driver are placed in the hierarchy in ascending order. On the same line Mumbai suburban train driver are assigned grade at par the passenger driver. At this place the EMU Mumbai suburban service has been highly undervalued. In terms of passenger carried in peak hours a 12 car Mumbai suburban train carries the more than 7000 people (official fig.) this is more than any other Indian railway service. In terms of the class of the passenger Mumbai suburban services have considerable number of executive and business class passengers. The maximum speed of Mumbai suburban trains is 100 Kmph that is comparable to other train service of Indian railways. In terms of traffic congestion Mumbai suburban train run on the most congested network of Indian railways. In turn it shows that a minor detention in Mumbai suburban has more severe cyclic effect than other network. Looking at the importance of Mumbai suburban train services the motorman of these services deserve far higher grade and position than that assigned to them. 5.5 Need of perfection in working – in tough working environment – motorman has scheduled stoppages many times more than any other train driver. These stoppages have to be with very fine perfection. All this requires continuous judgment of speed and acceleration/ deceleration and variable load throughout the journey. On average there is one stoppage in every 3 minute. This stress is coupled with pressure of trespassers, maintenance staff on the track and the continuous pressure of punctuality. At a point the motorman has to observe 2-3 signals and in less than 1 minute he has to cross a signal. This is because of very closely placed signals to allow more trains in a section. This condition also leads to heavy mental stress. We strongly feel that these peculiar characteristics of Mumbai suburban train working have been ignored while assigning the grade to the motorman. 5.6 Public Relation related responsibility of the Motorman- The Motorman is in the centre of attraction and curiosity of millions of commuters of Mumbai suburban. The image of the Motorman affects the overall perception about the Railways. Therefore the Motorman has to be all the time careful about his look, action and behavior. Every action of the Motorman is watched by the public very seriously. In case of abnormal working the Motorman has to handle thousands of people while performing his essential duties. This is not the case with any other Railway employee. 5.7 Growth opportunities- Being as a specialized work, growth opportunity is almost nil, so while assigning grades it should be taken in to consideration. 5.8 7 day a week - 365 working days a year - The motorman has to work in schedule of 7 days a week that is without any weekly off. Facility of availing national holidays is not available to the motorman. Therefore (other than his own leaves) he has to work 365 days throughout the year including major religious festivals. At this time when CPC is examining the appropriateness of the 5 days week working (Q no 1 of the questionnaire) is it not the right time to properly compensate to employees who are working 7 days a week.


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7.36.46 The present cadre of Loco Running Staff is as under:-

	(in Rs.)
Assistant Loco Pilot (Diesel/Electric)	3050-4590
Loco Pilot (Shunting) II/Senior Assistant Loco Pilot (Diesel/Electric)	4000-6000
Loco Pilot (Goods) II/Senior Loco Pilot (Shunting) I	5000-8000
Loco Pilot (Passenger) II /Motorman/Loco Pilot (Goods) I	5500-9000
Loco Pilot Mail Express, Loco Pilot Passenger I, Sr Motorman	6000-9800
Asst Loco foreman/Traction Loco Controller/Driving  Inspector/Power Controller/Loco Inspector/Loco Foreman ‘B’/Fuel Inspector ‘B’	6500-10500
Chief Traction Loco Controller/Chief Power Controller/Chief Loco Inspector/Loco Foreman ‘A’/Fuel Inspector ‘A’/Driving Inspector	7450-11500

7.36.47 Higher pay scales for Loco pilots have been demanded on the ground of their job profile, responsibilities, physical and mental efforts and hazards related to job. Loco pilots (mail/express, passenger I and senior motormen) are in the scale Rs.6000-9800. The scale of Rs.6500-10500 has been demanded for them. Due to introduction of Rajdhani/Shatabdi and other super fast trains, a special grade of Loco pilot (high speed/super fast) has also been demanded.

7.36.48  Upgradation of two grades above the present grade for Motor men of the Mumbai Suburban Local trains have been sought on the ground that they work in the most overstressed network in the world.

7.36.49  An insurance cover of Rs.15 lakh for all Loco running staff has been demanded. Various allowances like Risk allowance, High tension allowance, Break down allowance, National Holiday Allowance, Night duty allowance, etc. have also been sought.

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However the following report appeared in Hindustan times [ http://www.hindustantimes.com/rssfeed/mumbai/Some-motormen-earn-up-to-Rs-1-lakh-a-month/Article1-500348.aspx ]

Motormen on Mumbai’s suburban trains are reportedly paid better than their bosses.

According to records for latest salaries, there are five motormen on CR and five on WR, whose monthly payments have exceeded Rs 1 lakh and a large number of them earn between Rs 70,000 and 90,000. Besides regular duty, they get paid more per shift.

So, if a motorman decides to continue the shift and work longer, he gets more money.

Devendra Yadav, president of the joint action forum of Central and Western Railway, refuted this. “The big money that you see is not the salary, but various arrears and dues kept pending by the administration and given collectively.”

The average scheduled working hours of motormen is 6.25 hours per day and their average monthly pay structure, including allowances and overtime are approximately Rs. 60,000.

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Now i am none the wiser after reading through all these articles.And neither have i been able to make up my mind regarding who is on the wrong side. I know only this: it takes a lot of guts to rise against everyone and hold the entire city to ransom...whatever be the reasons... going on strike is never an easy call to make. Right now i am just watching the events play themselves out. And a question - Is a WIN/ WIN strategy possible in this case?? Or is the win/win strategy merely a management hogwash?