LABOUR- Plight of Railway Construction Casual Labour

February 14, 1981 LABOUR Plight of Railway Construction Casual Labour Timir Basu THE All-India Project and Construction Casual Labour Conference, the first such conference to be organised, at Calcutta on November 14-15, 1980 under the auspices of the All-India Railwaymen's Federation (AIRF) brought to the fore the plight of about one lakh workers engaged in various construction jobs of the railways spread all over the country* The railways, the largest employer of casual labour in the country, follows a dual policy in respect of casual Workers with a view to depriving one section of these workers of the benefits provided under the 'Open Line' (OL) system. About two lakh casual labourers in the railways who fall in the OL category have a modicum of security of service in that they are not thrown out of employment frequently, while construction casual workers have no right to work despite having decades of continuous service to their credit.