The Indian Railway Technical Supervisors Association (IRTSA) has made a major demand to the central government regarding the productivity-linked bonus (PLB) for railway employees. The organization has demanded that the PLB limit for non-gazetted Level 1 employees be increased to ₹18,000 (DA). Furthermore, IRTSA has stated that the bonus limit for Level 2 and above employees should be increased according to their pay grade.

IRTSA General Secretary K. V. Ramesh made this demand in a letter to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav on September 8, 2026. PLB is calculated based on a pay scale of ₹7,000. This limit was set in 2014-15. However, the organization claims that this limit has become outdated given the increase in employees' pay scales after the Seventh Pay Commission and the current 60% DA.

According to the organization, the PLB amount for non-gazetted employees has been ₹17,951 since 2014-15. If 60% DA is taken into account, this amount would be ₹27,824. Therefore, IRTSA has stated that the bonus limit needs to be re-determined based on the current pay structure.

Should railway employees receive a bonus of more than ₹46,000?
For railway employees, PLB is calculated based on 78 days. According to IRTSA, the minimum basic pay as per the Seventh Pay Commission is ₹18,000. If 78 days of PLB is calculated on this pay, the bonus amount is ₹46,184. Therefore, the organization has demanded that the minimum PLB pay limit be increased to ₹18,000.

Meanwhile, the organization stated in the letter that the productivity of railway freight transport has also increased significantly. Net tonne-kilometers were 682,612 million in 2014-15, which increased to 971,460 million in 2024-25, representing an increase of 42.32 percent. Meanwhile, the number of employees decreased. Based on this, IRTSA claims that output-input has increased by 53.55 percent. The organization states that if this increase is reflected in the PLB, the bonus amount should be ₹27,564. According to the organization, approximately 1.2 million railway employees could benefit from

PC: APBlive