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CHAPTER X.

Agent and the Railway Board. There are other problems arising out of
service conditions affecting individuals, grades and classes of workers
that require adequate facilities for ventilation and settlenent. The
method of dealing with these varies on different railways. Usually
appeals or petitions are forwarded through supervising subordinates
bo the executive officer concerned ; sometimes they are dealt with by
appropriate committees, and on some railways they may go wup
bo the Agent. We recommend that the procedure should be made
aniform on all railways. It is Important that grievances should be
ventilated, and we believe that the local and district or divisional
committees and railway councils referred to later provide appropriate
channels for dealing with these problems. Establishment and employment
 officers are of great assistance to workers in this connection and we
recommend their appointment on all railways. They have already
proved their value, especially in the large workshops, and we consider
their activities can usefully be extended, specially if employment
bureaux are set up to serve as a further link between the personnel
officers and the employees in the larger centres.
Joint Standing Machinery.
Only within the last twelve years has it been found advisable
 to set up machinery to deal with matters of a general nature involving
 questions of principle affecting classes or grades of workers.
Previously matters in dispute were generally settled by direct discussion
between the district officers and the men concerned. The economic
disturbance and the rise in the cost of living that directly followed the
war witnessed the rapid growth of the trade union movement amongst
railway employees, in common with other industrial workers all over
India. By 1919 workers had resorted to strikes in order to force increases
of wages, and for a year or two these were frequent. Most of them
were the result of grievances regarding wages and other service conditions,
 some took the form of protests against discharges or dismissals
and a small number was said to be due to extraneous influences,
In an effort to provide means of discussion of questions in dispute,
a district welfare committee was introduced in 1922 in the traffic
department of one railway. The following year the then Chief Commissioner
 of Railways advocated a scheme of co-ordinated local committees
for the local settlement of disputes and, what was considered more
important, for their prevention. He visualised in each district of the
railway a committee composed of equal numbers of workers and of
representatives of the administration, the work of these committees
being co-ordinated by a central council for each railway. The functions
 of the committees would extend to a variety of subjects, embracing
not only the ventilation and timely redress of grievances but all matters
connected with the welfare of the staff. Their recommendations
would be considered by the competent authorities, and matters of a
general nature affecting the railway system as a whole would be
placed before the central council and the Agent, who would have in his
office a welfare section in the charge of a special officer. Early in 1924,