Unionisation in Indian Railways

Unionisation in Indian Railways D Narasimha Reddy This paper describes the degree and structure of unionisation in the Indian Railways.
It begins with a brief account of the classification of railwaymen into four broad classes, a classification which does not at all reflect the extraordinary variety of 'categories' and 'trades' in the Indian Railways amounting to over 700. It then goes to describe the various laws that govern the formation and recognition of the trade unions and notes that there is both heavy unionisation of individual railwaymen as well as a multiplicity of unions in the Indian Railways. The administrative and political reasons for such a state of affairs are briefly touched upon towards the end of the paper.