Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1850495947

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-233603

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: His Majesty's Stationery Off.

Year of publication:: 1931

Scope:: xviii, 580 S.; graph. Darst., Kt.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter IX. - Railways

Collection:: Economics Books

RAILWAYS. 158 but compulsory for all drawing Rs. 20 or over. instead of Rs. 30 per month, which is the usual rule Gratuities, As regards retiring gratuities, we recommend that the limitation now placed upon the grant of a gratuity to a subordinate on retirement or resignation after 15 years’ qualifying service should be modified to permit of his voluntary withdrawal from the service, if so inclined, without any qualification except that of adequate previous notice of his intention. Debits. The question of fines is dealt with in another section of this Report but we must refer here to deductions made from wages of railway employees under the name of debits. These are generally raised against the staff in respect of (@) the issue of unnecessary telegrams, (b) loss or damage to railway property in their charge, (c) compensation claims paid by the railway to the public, where loss or damage to goods occurs while in railway custody, (d) undercharges in fares and freights and (e) short re- mittances and base coins. Figures of actual debits raised and of the monthly pay of the members of staff concerned have been, submitted, but not details of relative recoveries. We are informed that, in cases of loss or damage to railway property and to parcels and goods, debits are generally raised in the event of negligence on the part of the staff, different forms of punishment being used in other cases, according to circumstances. Under- charges in connection with fares and freights account for many of the debits and provide continuous ground for complaint. It takes some time for the undercharges to be detected in audit, and further time elapses before notice of them reaches the responsible parties. Figures supplied by one administration show that 40,648 debits of the total value of Rs. 2,60,578 were raised on account of undercharges during the year ended 31st October 1929. Of the amount raised, Rs. 1,01,309 was withdrawn, Rs. 1,29,025 was actually recovered and the balance of Rs. 30,244 was still outstanding on 23rd December 1929. We were informed that the staff obtain recoup- ment for these debits from the merchants. As we understand the position, the members of the staff against whom the debits are raised personally approach the merchants in the matter. This method was confirmed by the representative of another railway who explained that * most of these debits are not paid by the staff themselves but by the consignee. They are regular dealers at the stations, and out of motives of policy, I suppose, they pay the debits”. In our opinion this system of re- covery of undercharges and recoupment is undesirable. Evidence that details of debits were not kept in Separate lists or specially consi- dered was borne out by instances brought to our notice of the same members of station staff having debits raised against them month after month. Considerable hardship is caused to members of the staff by large deductions from their pay, which may be made months after the mistakes occurred. We understand that an officer has been placed on special duty to investigate and report on this question. We suggest that a special effort should be made to get at the root cause of the trouble,

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