The Hindu Business Line : Deemed Deputation — IRCTC on productive employment drive

Productive measures
IRCTC is planning a slew of measures that include engaging the staff in situations where there is semi-mechanised environment.
It also plans to train and motivate the staff and explore further promotional avenues

New Delhi , May 9

In a situation that would have probably driven several companies look at voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) option, Indian Railways Catering and Tourist Corporation (IRCTC) is trying to balance out its social obligation — while trying to be productive at the same time.

Having taken over 7,000 employees from Railways, IRCTC has now emerged as the biggest catering organisation — in terms of staff and nationwide presence — in the country. The personnel are spread across 600-700 locations and 33 trains. Prior to the takeover, IRCTC had some 300 employees.

These 7,000 employees have been transferred on deemed deputation to IRCTC. "The transfer process was completed this March. It had started in a phased manner since January 2004," Mr S.K. Malik, Managing Director, IRCTC told Business Line recently. Of the 7,000, 6,000 are Railways employees and about 1,000 worked with the Railways on "commission basis". That is, they take a certain percentage of their total sales as income.

Most of the employees are engaged in labour intensive jobs such as food preparation and serving, selling packed products such as juice, biscuits and water in trains and stations. A small section of the staff includes supervisors and inspectors as well. So, though they do earn revenues but their jobs are not always profitable.

With an aim to ensure productive employment of all staff, IRCTC is planning a slew of measures that include engaging them in situations where there is semi-mechanised environment, so that their output becomes measurable and revenues can be watched on a per employee basis.

Future plans

It also plans to train and motivate the staff and explore further promotional avenues, said Mr Malik. The staff is being relocated as well to those places where there is shortage of employees.

Simultaneously, IRCTC is also trying to induct apprentices for cooking and serving food, who would be selected by India Tourism Development Corporation. "They would do an on-the-job training for two-three years, after which they get certificates," said Mr Malik.

The move would inflate the organisation's total annual wage bill from about Rs 4-5 crore initially in pre-2004 period to about Rs 75 crore now, he said.

However, with projects such as budget hotels, automatic vending machines kicking off — which would be given out to private bidders to manage and run through competitive bidding — the PSU expects to register Rs 35-40 crore of profit over a Rs 400-crore revenue in 2006-07.

Earlier, the catering units at stations and in trains had been operating without paying any significant charges.

Those who ran these units had been doing it for generations at a stretch and were paying pittance to the Railways as low as Rs 10 to Rs 100 per month at most of the stations. But IRCTC had started competitive bidding process recently for all these units.

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