India News | Railway Board Directs Zones to Take Necessary Steps to Hold Trade Union Elections

New Delhi, Feb 5 (PTI) The Railway Board has directed railway zones and units to make necessary arrangements for holding secret ballot elections in July-August to give recognition to trade unions.

Registered railway employee unions contest the elections at the zonal level, and according to modalities, those unions that receive more than 30 per cent votes are recognised.

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The last elections were held in 2013. The polls were supposed to be held in 2019 but got delayed.

The Railway Board has also asked all stakeholders to provide support to the Secret Ballot Election Committee on preparing draft modalities for the proposed polls.

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The board had constituted this committee on November 17 last year to seek comments of all stakeholders on the draft modalities.

"Complete support is to be provided to the committee's process so that on completion of review/updation of the modalities and other related requirements by the committee, the elections for the verification/recognition of Unions may be conducted," the board said in a communication, dated February 1, to zones and units.

Highlighting the urgency to hold the elections in July-August, it said annually there is a steep increase in loading in the railways in the months of February and March and summer specials are operated in very large numbers in April, May and June.

"The essential safety preparations are needed to be undertaken before the onset of monsoon. General elections to the Parliament will also be held in the above period," the communication stated.

Considering these, "the time required by the committee and operational requirement of the railways, the elections of the unions are to be held in July-August 2024. Railways may, accordingly, make necessary preparations for conduct of elections between July-August, 2024," it said.

The railways had earlier decided to hold the secret ballot elections in 2019. However, it did not constitute any Secret Ballot Election Committee till the matter landed in the Delhi High Court.

On August 3 last year, the court directed it to issue a notification for the constitution of the committee within four months.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)