Sufferings spark amid railway strike

Staff Reporter :

Railway authorities and protesting running staff have failed to reach an understanding after meeting amid the ongoing strike of the railway running staff.

Following a pre-announced programme by the Bangladesh Railway Running Staff Union including guards, loco masters, assistant loco masters, sub-loco masters and ticket inspectors, all train services across the country have been suspended.

To resolve the deadlock caused by the work stoppage, officials from the Ministry of Railways held a meeting with the protesting railway running staff leaders. However, the running staff leaders left the meeting without reaching any resolution.

In Dhaka, unaware of the strike, passengers bound for various districts gathered at Kamalapur Railway Station early Tuesday morning (January 28), only to discover that train services were halted.

The announcement of the suspension has left passengers frustrated and disheartened. Many, including families with children and elderly individuals, are waiting at the Kamalapur platform with no clear alternative.

Mumtaz Begum, an elderly woman from Narayanganj, told media “We didn’t know the trains wouldn’t run. I came here by Autorickshaw this morning, paying 700 taka, only to hear that train services are suspended! Now I’m worried about how to go to Mymensingh.”

Meanwhile, at least 29 buses of the Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation, or BRTC, have been serving as alternative transports, taking rail passengers to different destinations as train services were suspended across the country after a work stoppage by the railway running staff.

The BRTC buses left train stations from morning to 2:30pm, bound for different destinations on Tuesday.

In Rajshahi , agitated passengers have vandalised the Rajshahi Railway Station after a work stoppage by running staff halted all train services across the country.

According to Shaheedul Alam, acting station master from 7am to 8am, several hundred passengers who came to the station held a protest and then vandalised their surroundings.

He said “The agitated passengers broke chairs and tables in a room for TTEs (travel ticket examiners) the other rooms were locked at the time. The passengers also broke several chairs at the station.”

After the meeting among Railway authorities and protesting running staff on Tuesday, the leaders of the railway running staff said they would discuss the matter further while the work stoppage continued.

The railway running staff launched an indefinite work stoppage from 12am on Tuesday demanding the addition of running allowances in their basic pay for pension calculations and gratuity benefits.

The strike left passengers in distress as train services came to a halt countrywide.

Later a meeting between the railway running staff and Railway Secretary Md Fahimul Islam began around 1:30pm at the Dhaka Railway Station VIP room. The delegation of the railway running staff left the room at around 2:45pm.

Md Saidur Rahman, executive president of the Bangladesh Railway Running Staff and Workers Employees Association, said: “We spoke with the railway secretary and director general for a long time but failed to reach an agreement, so we left.’

We’ll discuss the issue with our central leaders. But we’re adamant on continuing the strike.”

Secretary Fahimul said another meeting with the protesters would be held at the railway building before leaving the station around 3:30pm.

The railway running staff, including guards, loco masters, assistant loco masters, sub loco masters and travel ticket examiners, are directly involved in running trains.

More than 1,700 running staff work on providing rail service across the country.

On average, running staff need to work for 15-18 hours each day. Previously, they used to get special financial benefits for the over time, which was called mileage. This mileage was part of their salary.

The running staff used to get an additional amount equivalent to their one-day basic salary for each 100 km distance their trains covered.

If a work day is considered to be eight hours, the work done by running staff in a month becomes equivalent to 2.5 or 3 months for other workers.

Their salary was calculated accordingly. In addition, they used to get pensions with an additional 75 percent of their basic salary.

Previous time in 2022, the Ministry of Finance scrapped all these benefits for the running staff. Since then, the Bangladesh Railway running staff and workers employees association has been staging regular protests.

On Jan 22, the running staff held a press briefing in Chattogram and announced a work stoppage from Jan 28.
Railways Adviser Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan, who travelled to the Kamalapur Railway Station on Tuesday morning, said the Finance Division was responsible for meeting their demands and not the Ministry of Railways.

Further, he said, “We have already raised the issue to the Finance Division and they met most of the demands. If needed, we’ll discuss the rest. The discussion can go on, but train services should not be halted,” Finance Adviser Saleh Uddin Ahmed said that the “reasonable demands” made by protesting railway workers were already granted.

Further, he said, “The Ministry of Finance has accepted the reasonable demands of the railway workers regarding overtime. We have accepted their reasonable demands several days ago and given them. Why they are still continuing their protest is their own business,” “Everyone will have multiple demands. They say we have to pay this that we have to pay overtime allowance. We have given as much as we could according to our resources.”

Finance Adviser Salehuddin highlighting the government’s ongoing financial crisis, saing, “I think we have given as much as was rational. Now if they say we have to pay everything together, now we have to balance our finances. I have managed to bring it to a fairly stable level even though we had to borrow from overseas.”
“The finance ministry usually does not prohibit any reasonable demands, especially for humanitarian reasons. And if people’s jobs are in trouble, we try our best.”

Regarding the demands of the running staff, he said, “Others have the same demands. If I say in the case of the railways that I will see to their needs, that makes things difficult. We have resolved the issue of overtime in the railways. Now if they say that pension, gratuity, etc have to be added – there are many more demands from other government agencies similar to this.”