Chennai: Booking clerk-tout ties would have long ended in the Southern Railway (SR) zone if only the clerks did not enjoy the patronage of SRMU, the sole recognised employees union of the railway zone.
The role of the commercial department ends with the deputing of people to the PRS (passenger reservation system) centres, but it’s the influential SRMU member at every PRS centre who quite often runs the show, mainly allotting counters to clerks. The role of the union is pretty simple. “It ensures that member clerks remain at desired PRS centres, protects them from disciplinary action initiated by commercial managers who mostly don’t dare to raid the counter, fearing the union’s anger,” a serving clerk admitted. Even if a vigilance officer raids and occasionally issues a charge memo to the clerks, it only helps the union.
“The union coaxes, in most cases, intimidates, officers and gets the charge memo recalled or reduced to the bare minimum. But the ‘service’ does not come free. The union charges Rs 25,000 per vigilance case,” another serving commercial clerk said, recalling how one of his colleagues at Chennai Central parcel office recently availed of the union’s ‘service’ for Rs 25,000 to undo a chargesheet and stop his transfer out of Central. “If he had approached the union to directly stop the transfer he would have been charged Rs 50,000, but he used the chargesheet route to continue in Central for another four years by paying half the sum,” the clerk sarcastically said, quickly adding that such clerks owe more to the SRMU during the Deepavali season.
“Other employees give a small cut from the Rs 8,000-and-odd Deepavali bonus they get to the union. But, booking clerks in vital PRS centres like MMC and Egmore pay up to Rs 10,000 to the union,” said another serving booking clerk, requesting anonymity.
Conceding that the union was the biggest hurdle in disciplining the clerks, a senior serving IRTS officer said that the rule prevents a clerk from staying at one PRS centre for more than four years and a clerk cannot return there for the next two years. “We have also evolved a policy of priority, wherein senior clerks would be appointed as non-counter clerks and the juniors as counter clerks. The personnel department has a similar policy for posting and transfer of clerks. But the SRMU either finds leeway and arm-twists and gets postings and transfers done as it desires,” the officer admitted.
Repeated attempts to contact SRMU divisional secretary Paul Maxwell Johnson proved futile.
