The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) has strongly denounced the Railway Board's recent directive allowing continued re-engagement of retired railway staff on a contractual basis against non-gazetted vacant posts.

Calling the move a "cruelty against unemployed youth," the central trade union has demanded immediate large-scale recruitment to fill the nearly 3 lakh vacancies in the Indian Railways.

The Railway Board, in a letter dated June 20, 2025—building on earlier directives from October 15 and December 31, 2024—stated that non-gazetted vacant posts in Pay Level 1 to Pay Level 9 may be filled by retired staff as volunteers.

The letter permits re-engagement of employees who retired from the same cadre or category, extending up to three levels higher than the post in question. While preference is to be given to those retired from the same pay level, CITU believes this is a cover for an alarming trend.

“This action of the Board instead of filling the total 2.5 to 3 lakh vacancies in Railways is a cruelty against the huge unemployed youth awaiting recruitment,” said the CITU in a press release.

The union criticised the central government, saying, “The Modi Govt at the centre which promised 2 crores jobs per year a decade back before coming to power is pursuing this policy of furthering the precarious natured jobs which is worse than contract labour that too as volunteers by re-engaging the retired staff.”

CITU alleges that the re-engagement policy is part of a broader strategy to restructure the workforce in a way that fosters “barbarous precariousness, temporariness, and rightlessness.”

The union warned that the move would deepen contractualisation and outsourcing, even in critical operational and safety-sensitive roles, undermining workers' rights to unionise, bargain, and assert themselves collectively.

“The Railway unions must resist this,” the statement urged, warning that ignoring these “conspiratorial moves” by the Railway management and the BJP-led government would be “at their peril.”

According to CITU, the Indian Railways currently employs around 12 lakh regular employees and more than 6 lakh contract workers. The union also pointed out that in many cases, sanctioned posts are being surrendered instead of being filled.

“These actions have led to severe staff shortage and huge work load on the existing employees,” the statement noted.

“Staff shortage is also one of the reasons for the increasing train accidents during this period.”

CITU accused the government of endangering passenger safety by refusing to fill long-vacant positions.

“Through this sort of decision, the Modi led Union Govt is playing with the lives of the passengers’ dependant on the railways for their commuting,” it said.

The trade union has called on the Railway Board to withdraw the re-engagement decision and urgently initiate recruitment to fill the vacant posts without surrendering sanctioned positions.
 
“The state of affairs has gone worse from bad as there are vacancies in lakhs with the biggest employer – Indian railways remaining unfilled, is facing acute shortage of staff and the crores of youth are in search of jobs in the nation,” CITU said.