Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday announced that the supervisor cadre employees will be able to get a direct promotion. Under this policy, the Railway Grade-6 employees will be applicable for direct promotion, meaning higher pay grades equivalent to Group A officers.
Ashwini Vaishnaw said that there was stagnation in the supervisory cadre of railways in Level-7 and the scope of their promotion was very minimal. "We had 80,000 supervisors. For the last 16 years (from 2006) there was a long pending demand for the upgradation of the supervisory cadre. The only scope of promotion was the selection in 3,712 vacancies by appearing in Group 'B' examination.”
He further said, “Provision has been made for the promotion of 50 people in non-functional grade in 4 years from Level-8 to Level 9. This will directly benefit 40,000 supervisors and all will get an average extra salary of ₹2,500-4,000 per month. Railways has also started identifying the employees coming under the ambit of promotion."
According to the minister, under this new policy, a provision has been made to promote 50 per cent of employees from Level 7 to Level 8. Supervisors of civil mechanical, electrical, S&T traffic, chemical and metallurgical, stores and commercial departments would benefit from this policy.
The move is expected to benefit 40,000 such supervisor grade employees like station masters, ticket checkers, traffic inspectors, among others whom the minister described as "field level workers". The union government has already approved the policy and is implemented with immediate effect.