Rail link with Dhaka restored after temporary workers block tracks at FDC signal
At around 5:00pm, the protesters moved to the Abdul Gani road's Rail Bhaban and held a sit-in programme demanding a meeting with the Bangladesh Railway Director General Md Kamrul Ahsan
Train communication with the rest of the country was restored after five hours of contractual employees and workers of the Bangladesh Railway blocking the rail line at the FDC Rail Gate signal near Karwan Bazar in the capital around 10am today.
The agitating workers blocked the rail line around 10am on Sunday protesting against the outsourcing of workers, confirmed Apurbo Hasan, officer-in-charge of Tejgaon police station.
They have been making demands for permanent employment and the regularisation of their jobs.
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"At 2:45pm the protest moved off the tracks and are now moving towards the railway building. They will present their demands to the railway minister there," railway worker Mohammad Enamul told The Business Standard following a meeting with Jahangir Hossain, General Manager (East).
At the time of filing the report (5:00pm), the protesters were holding a sit in programme in front of capital's Abdul Gani road's Rail Bhaban demanding a meeting with the Bangladesh Railway Director General Md Kamrul Ahsan.
Earlier in July, some 8,000 temporary workers of Bangladesh Railway lost their jobs despite an acute manpower shortage in the state-run rail transport agency, citing that there is no allocation for them in the budget of FY24.
The railway currently has about 25,000 employees against approval for the recruitment of 47,637 manpower. That means about 22,000 posts remain vacant in the state agency.
Due to manpower shortage, the railway has been running its operation for a long time with temporary recruitment of fifth-class employees on a Temporary Labor Recruitment (TLR) (no work, no wage) basis.
According to Railway data, more than 8,000 temporary workers have been working in various positions including Gatekeeper, P-Man, Wayman, and Khalasi for a long time. Their wages on a daily basis range from Tk500-575.
Ignoring the High Court orders on multiple writ petitions to regularise jobs of 1,000 TLR employees, Bangladesh Railway is going to appoint temporary workers by outsourcing instead of regularising long-term temporary employees.
Temporary employees who have been working for 3 to 10 years in the railway become angry about this.
Leaders of these temporary workers said the railway is not regulating these temporary workers even after working continuously for long. Rather it issued a circular for fresh recruitment in the post.
The railway authorities say the non-cadre recruitment policy of the Bangladesh Railway in 2020 does not allow the workers appointed under projects to be regularised in the revenue sector.
The Railway Recruitment Rules-2020 envisage outsourcing (contractual) for temporary workers' recruitment. Under the outsourcing method, workers will be employed through contractors so that later they cannot demand job regularisation.
