7th Pay Commission: Indian Railways employees union threatens pan India hunger strike from this day

7th Pay Commission strike: Indian Railway employees' union has been waiting for long for the Centre to take a favourable decision on their list of demands over salaries. That has not happened yet and now this has led to a call for action by the staff's union. The union has now called for a 72-hour relay hunger strike across the country from tomorrow against the non-implementation of the provisions of the 7th pay commission. Railway employees' union is also irked over reported move of the government to privatise the national transporter. According to a statement issued by the All India Railwaymen's Federation (AIRF) today, despite several meetings of the AIRF with leaders of the central government organisations and Home Minister, Finance Minister, Railway Minister and Minister of State for Railways, the government has not taken any decision on their 7th Pay commission linked demands. 
 
The statement related to 7th pay commission said, "Despite requests to the government of India to consider the demands of the Central Government Employees -- improvement in minimum wage and fitment factor after implementation of 7th CPC recommendations, provision of guaranteed pension and family pension to all the NPS (National Pension Scheme) covered employees, irrespective of their date of appointment...Contractorisation leading towards wholesale privatisation, no fruitful outcome has emerged as yet despite lapse of around two years' precious time."

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Earlier AIRF in its meetings of the General Council and Working Committee, held on March 13-14, 2018 in New Delhi, had decided to stage a 'Mass Relay Hunger Strike' for 24 hours for three consecutive days -- at all the branches of the affiliated unions of the federation all over India. The statement further stated that "All the branches of AIRF affiliates are, therefore, going to stage the aforesaid 'Relay Hunger Strike' from the morning of May 8, all over the Indian Railways". In the strike, large- number of railwaymen would sit on the relay hunger strike to press for their major 7th pay commission linked demands, the statement added.

In similar vein, central government employees have been waiting for a hike in fitment factor to 3.68 times with minimum pay scale of Rs 26,000, after the Union Cabinet revised their minimum pay to Rs 18,000 from previous Rs 7,000 per month, along with fitment factor of 2.57 in June 2016. But there is silence in the corridors of power. The government's revenues are quite tight and this is ensuring that a positive decision gets delayed if not trashed. However, with the economy imptoving, chances of positive developments have improved for central government employees.