Fears grow for more disruptions in train services

A scheduled meeting between the Bangladesh Railway Authorities and railways’ running staffers, who have decided not to take on additional duties until their demands are met, was not held today, raising concerns about further disruptions in train services.
Due to shortage of staff, the running staff members, including locomasters and their assistants who are directly involved in train operations, are now being forced to take on additional duties to maintain normal train services.
However, since December 1, running staffers, under the banner of the Bangladesh Railway Running Staff and Sramik Karmachari Union, have stopped working extra hours beyond their scheduled eight-hour shifts to press their two-point demands.
As a result, train services have been facing disruptions over the past four days, with authorities forced to cancel several local train trips. Other trains have been delayed from one hour to several hours, according to officials.
The situation worsened today, after another group of railway staffers, the train controllers, announced work abstention from today to press their own demands. However, they called off their protest after a meeting with railway authorities in the evening.
Currently, around 1,000 locomasters and assistant locomasters are working, compared to the sanctioned 2,270 posts, according to sources from Bangladesh Railway (BR).
Running staffers, which include locomasters, assistant locomasters, guards, and traveling ticket examiners (TTE), have traditionally worked beyond their duty hours and received extra pay for the additional hours worked. They also received pension benefits based on the pay for their extra work. However, in November 2021, the finance ministry declined to grant pension benefits based on this extra work.
Following a strike in April 2022, the railway ministry intervened and ensured that running staffers could continue to receive pension benefits. However, the staffers have long been demanding that the finance ministry cancel the November 2021 order, as it may be used against them in the future.
In addition, newly recruited assistant locomasters, who were appointed in 2022, have not been receiving this benefit, as their appointment letters stated they would not receive extra pay during their service or after retirement.
As per their earlier announcement, the newly appointed assistant locomasters began their work abstention from December 1, seeking extra pay, while other running staffers decided to stop working additional hours beyond the scheduled eight hours.
This has resulted in authorities canceling at least 10 local trains in the Dhaka and Chattogram divisions of BR. However, passenger trains across all four divisions, including Pakshey and Lalmonirhat, have faced delays of one hour to several hours, causing significant inconvenience for passengers over the last four days, according to officials from three railway divisions.
In this context, railway authorities urged the agitating staffers to refrain from their protest and hold a meeting with the newly appointed railway ministry secretary today. However, the staffers refused to end their protest, and as a result, the meeting was not held.
“The meeting was not held as they [staffers] were not agreeing to hold the meeting,” said Afzal Hossain, additional director general (Infrastructure) of BR, told The Daily Star.
Mujibur Rahman, general secretary of the union, however, clarified that they were not observing work abstention but had decided not to work during their rest hours, a practice they had previously done.
“What is the problem with holding a meeting in this situation?” he told The Daily Star today.
Railway sources said that the authorities decided not to hold the meeting as they expected the staffers to show respect to the newly appointed railway ministry secretary by postponing their protest.
Asked about their future course of action, Mujibur said they would not go on work abstention, but railway service disruptions would continue as they upheld their decision not to work during rest hours.
Railway officials also expressed concerns that train services would be further disrupted unless running staffers withdraw their protest.
Meanwhile, train controllers, who are responsible for coordinating railway services nationwide, used to receive four increments with each new pay scale for their demanding and round-the-clock job. However, in 2021, the finance ministry canceled this benefit. They have been demanding the reinstatement of these benefits for a long time and went on work abstention from today, which led to further disruptions in train services.
Later, after a meeting with the authorities, the train controllers returned to work in the evening following assurances from the authorities, according to Afzal Hossain.