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

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter X. - Railways - continued

Collection:: Economics Books

160 CHAPTER X are responsible for the safety of the travelling public and it is essential that they should be both attentive and alert in the performance of their duties. Staff working the long hours prevalent on some railways must have considerable difficulty in maintaining the requisite standard of efficiency. The reduction to be effected under the Hours of Employ- ment Rules is long over-due and it is admitted that a considerable time will elapse before the Rules are extended to all workers. As the opera- tions would be the same, their application to a lower limit than 60 hours presents no administrative difficulty. The question at issue is, whether it is reasonable to require that the hours of employment of railway workers should exceed the weekly limits of the general body of workers whose hours are regulated by statute. If regard be had both to the International Labour Conventions and to the general practice in other countries, it will be found that no such distinction is attempted. In their opinion our examination of conditions obtaining in India demon- strates that such a contention is untenable. They are, therefore, not prepared to subscribe to our conclusion and accordingly recommend that the weekly hours of continuous workers be reduced to the same level as thev have suggested for factory and mine workers, namely, fortv-eicht. Security of Service. We have received a great deal of evidence on the subject of disciplinary action and insecurity of service. On the one side it was urged that existing forms of service agreements were unfair in that the administration was empowered to terminate service without assigning reasons. It was also urged that on occasions men were dispensed with by discharge instead of by dismissal, thereby preventing them, as dis- charged employees, from exercising rights of appeal generally accorded bo dismissed employees. The contention is that the usual form of agree- ment gives no protection against unfair termination of service. The other side of the case is stated by the Railway Board in recently issued rules and explanations regulating the discharge and dismissal of state railway non-gazetted covernment servants as follows *— “ The Railway Department being a commercial department, service in it must in its nature ditler from service in other government departments and continuance of employment must be subject to the tests and conditions enforced by large commer- cial concerns, Accordingly the power which the railway administrations possess of discharging railway servants without assigning reasons in accordance with the terms of their agreement, or otherwise on reduction of establishment due to fluctuations of traffic, simplification of the methods of work or any other cause, or on grounds of inefficiency, must he retained. This power, however, by its very nature imposes upon the competent authority the obligation to use.it considerately and with strict justice so that the railway servants shall feel that they can expect fair and reasonable treatment. A too frequent or a thoughtless recourse to it is apt to lead to a sense of instability of service, which is detrimental both to the welfare of the staff and to the efficient and eecnnomical warking of railways.” The partial application, however, of Fundamental Rules and other rules and regulations to state-managed and company-managed rail- ways on no uniform plan has complicated the position and created service traditions and vested rights that cannot be ignored. The feeling of insecurity of service is a source of anxiety. which in our oninion justifies

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

Monograph

Chapter

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

Chapter

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation