- Signal and Telecommunications Department Employees of Indian Railway observed Demand Day on 24th June, 2026
- Railway Board called upon the Representatives of IRSTMU to listen to the demands
NDLS. The Signal and Telecommunications Department employees at Dakor Railway Station observed today as Demand Day under the banner of Indian Railway S&T Maintainers Union. Immediately after the demonstration Railway Board called upon the Representatives of IRSTMU to listen to the demands.
Alok Chandra Prakash, General Secretary and Navin Kumar, National President represented 28 point demands list before the Railway Board officials. As per them in the last four to five years, hundreds of Signal and Telecommunications Department employees have been killed in runovers or in accidents while on duty, lowered the morale of the S&T employees.
Every year, more than two dozen (24) Signal and Telecommunications Department employees are killed in run-overs, accidents while on duty, or by the local public while repairing LC gates.
Not only this, S&T staffs are called in without any duty roster or after their working hours whenever there is a signal failure, which violates the HOER, 2005 rules compromising safety and security of Signal and Telecommunications Department employees as well as train and passengers too.
However, the unfortunate thing is that the Signal and Telecommunication Employees are being not given any kind of allowance in return for these additional hours of work. If they make any mistake while asleep, they face things like chargesheets, suspensions, and even, on occasion, dismissal from their jobs. But more worse is accident like Balasore Train Accident in which thousands of passengers life was gone.
According to the data collected by IRSTMU, the highest number of charge sheets in the Signal and Telecommunications Department, about 70%, are being given to ESM. Not only this, due to the irregular lifestyle of the Signal and Telecommunications Department employees working without duty roster, the employees of the Signal and Telecommunications Department are falling prey to dangerous diseases like heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer.
Due to the lack of attention given to the Signal and Telecommunications employees by the administration and due to the neglect of us employees, the feeling of dissatisfaction is increasing.
Their main demands are as follows:
- Grant Risk and Hardship Allowance to all Signal and Telecommunication Department employees immediately.
- Establish ‘Night Duty Failure Rectification Gangs’ in all SSE units immediately.
- Immediately halt violations of HOER, 2005 rules and amend Paragraphs 3.8.2 (b) and 3.8.5 (a) of the SEM (Signal Engineering Manual) to replace “A Technician (Signal)” with “The ON DUTY Technician (Signal)” with immediate effect. 4. With railway safety and security in mind, all employees of the Signal and Telecommunication Department should be assigned 8-hour shift duties as soon as possible; furthermore, the practice of calling employees from their homes—while they are sleeping at night—to attend to signaling failures must be stopped immediately.
- All vacancies in the Signal and Telecom Department should be filled as soon as possible.
- The three technician categories within the Signal Department—Technician Signal Grade-1, Technician Signal Grade-2, and Technician Signal Grade-3—should be merged into a single category designated as “Signal Interlocking Manager.”
- The three technician categories within the Telecom Department—Technician Telecom Grade-1, Technician Telecom Grade-2, and Technician Telecom Grade-3—should be merged into a single category designated as “Telecommunication Manager.”
- Time bond promotion to Assistant category upto Level 2800 similar to the restructuring implemented for Track Maintainers and Pointsmen, all Assistant Technicians (Helpers) in the Signal and Telecommunication Department should be restructured across Level-1, Level-2, Level-4, and Level-5.
- The initial basic pay for all JEs (Junior Engineers) in the Signal and Telecom Department should be set at Level-7.
- The initial basic pay for for all SSEs (Senior Section Engineers) at Level-8.
- All JEs and SSEs of the Signal and Telecom Department should be granted Gazetted status, similar to other departments of Government of India.
- MACP to Sr. Tech. Upto GP4600/-
- Filling of the vacant post of Direct recruitment seats of S.S.E.
- Increase in the % of Direct recruitment to Technician Gr.1 to 35% from existing 15%
- Direct recruitment to Technician Telecom Gr.1
- Breakdown Allowance during failure equivalent to 100% TA as per Accident Manual.
- Increase in Initial Pay of Assistant Signal and Assistant Telecom to GP 2000/-
- Improvement in all S&T Training Centres/STTCs including IRISET clearance of all proposals pending with Railway Board.
- Training to all Promotee JE to IRISET
