New Delhi, Oct 3 (FN Bureau) The Union Cabinet has on Thursday approved modification of the existing Productivity Linked Reward (PLR) Scheme for the major ports and dock labour board employees/workers from 2020-21 to 2025-26, a move that would benefit about 20,704 employees. The total financial implication for the entire period will be about Rs. 200 crore. The Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways has accordingly modified the Productivity Linked Reward (PLR) Scheme for all major port authorities and Dock Labour Board employees/workers for the years 2020-21 to 2025-26, increasing weightage for the calculation of PLR to port-specific performance instead of weightage to all India performance, an official statement said after the Cabinet meeting chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Productivity | Linked Reward (PLR) has been calculated on the wage ceiling for calculation of bonus at Rs. 7,000/- per month. PLR shall be paid annually by enhancing the port-specific performance weightage from 50% to 55% and further increasing to 60%. The All India Port performance weightage will also come down to 40% over a period till 2025-26. This is replacing the existing equal weightage of 50% for the all-India port performance and the specific port performance. It is expected that the proposed modification will bring about the efficiency factor along with competition among the major ports, the official release added. This PLR Scheme will foster better industrial relationships and a congenial work atmosphere in the Port Sector, apart from stimulating better productivity. Productivity Linked Reward (PLR) is an existing scheme for the employees/workers of Major Port Trusts and Dock Labour Board, wherein financial reward is being granted to employees/workers on a yearly basis based on the settlement arrived at between Management and the Labour Federations of the Major Port Authorities, the release added.
In a major bonanza for Railway Employees, the Union Cabinet has approved payment of Productivity Linked Bonus (PLB) of 78 days for Rs. 2028.57 crore to 11,72,240 Railway employees.
This is done in recognition of the excellent performance by the Railway staff, an official statement issued by the government said after the Union Cabinet meeting chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The amount will be paid to various categories, of Railway staff like Track maintainers, Loco Pilots, Train Managers (Guards), Station Masters, Supervisors, Technicians, Technician Helpers, Pointsman, Ministerial staff and other Group XC staff. The payment of PLB acts as an incentive to motivate the railway employees for working towards improvement in the performance of the Railways. Payment of PLB to eligible railway employees is made each year before the Durga Puja/ Dusshera holidays.
This year also, PLB amount equivalent to 78 days’ wages is being paid to about 11.72 lakh non-gazetted Railway employees, the statement added. The maximum amount payable per eligible railway employee is Rs.17,951/- for 78 days. The above amount will be paid to various categories, of Railway staff like Track maintainers, Loco Pilots, Train Managers (Guards), Station Masters, Supervisors, Technicians, Technician Helpers, Pointsman, Ministerial staff and other Group ‘C staff. The performance of Railways in the year 2023-2024 was very good. Railways loaded a record cargo of 1588 Million Tonnes and carried nearly 6.7 billion passengers, the release said. Many factors contributed to this record performance. These include improvement in infrastructure due to infusion of record Capex by the Government in Railways, efficiency in operations and better technology etc.