9 unions urge Railway Board to scrap contractual hiring in Signal Dept, fill vacant safety posts

New Delhi, Sep 8 (PTI) Nine unions representing safety category employees have urged the Chairman and CEO of the Railway Board to withdraw a circular permitting contractual hiring of supervisors, field engineers and technicians in the Signal and Telecommunication Department across four railway zones on a two-year trial basis.

On May 6, the Railway Board issued a circular to the General Managers of four railway zones - Northeast Frontier, East Coast, South Western and Western - asking them to hire these personnel on a contractual basis as part of a two-year pilot project initially to assist signalling and telecom staff.

The Board justified the contractual hiring saying that the massive expansion of the railway network and implementation of the modern signalling system necessitated the need to strengthen its maintenance.

However, the unions have opposed the move, expressing doubts about the commitment of the contractual staff in maintaining critical safety systems and the potential vulnerability to sabotage.

“The S&T department is a critical safety department of the Indian Railways with complex interlock mechanisms and advanced electronic systems,” the letter, addressed to the Board’s CEO, said.

It argued that employing Supervisors/ Field Engineers and Technicians on a contract basis in this department is completely unsafe for the train operations and passengers' safety.

“The complex and advanced interlocking of Signal and Telecom departments needs a high and intensive level of training of one to one-and-a-half years at various STTCs (Signal and Telecommunication Training Centres) and IRISET (Indian Railways Institute of Signal Engineering and Telecommunications),” the letter said.

To support their argument, they referred to a recommendation of the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS), Southern Circle, who flagged a similar concern in the investigation report of the rear-end collision between the Mysuru-Dharbhanga Bagmati Express and a stabled freight train at Kavaraipettai Station in Chennai Railway Division on February 11, 2025.

In the report, the CRS stated that the engagement and exposure of contractual staff for the maintenance and operation of critical safety features and systems and allowing them to develop skills in these areas must be reviewed as a priority, and it must be brought to a minimum in the short term and null in the long term.

The unions claimed that the Board’s circular violates the recommendation of the CRS. “In view of the above facts, the move to appoint staff of the S & T department on contractual basis will be a compromise with safety,” their letter said.

Along with demanding the withdrawal of the circular, the unions also urged immediate filling of the vacancies across all safety-related departments of Indian Railways.

According to the letter, the Track Maintainers and Signal & Telecommunication (S&T) departments have the highest vacant posts - 31.2 per cent and 30.2 per cent respectively.

It added that the Train Managers (guards) and Train Controllers departments have vacancy status of 27.3 per cent and 21.9 per cent respectively.

The letter also highlighted staffing gaps in three other safety departments - Loco Pilots (19.1 per cent), Pointsmen (7.3 per cent), and Station Masters (5.5 per cent).

The nine unions which signed the letter are Indian Railway S&T Maintainers Union, All India Train Controllers Association, All India Loco Running Staff Association, All India Guards Council, All India Station Masters Association, All India Pointsmen Association, Central Railway Track Maintainers Union and Indian Railway Employees Federation.

Prior to the unions’ letter, one of the two Railway Board-recognised federations, the National Federation of Indian Railwaymen (NFIR), had also raised concerns over the recruitment of contractual staff in a letter to the Railway Board.

“The Federation (NFIR) contends that the adventurism shown in Board's letter dated 06/0 5/2025 relating to the execution of certain activities along with the supply of material, deployment of technical teams at major stations on a contract basis will not yield expected results in the absence of trained and qualified Railway manpower of S&T Department.

"Such an experiment would be counterproductive,” M. Raghavaiah, General Secretary, NFIR, wrote to the Board in a separate letter. PTI JP RT