Unified Pension Scheme to benefit 62,267 serving employees of Southern Railway

CHENNAI: The Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) approved by the Union Cabinet would benefit 62,267 serving employees of the Southern Railway (SR), according to an official release issued by the SR headquarters on Monday.

It said that the zone has a total of 81,311 employees on its rolls. Of them, 18,605 employees were covered by the Old Pension Scheme (Gazetted Staff- 689 -amp; Non-Gazetted Staff - 17,916).

62,706 Southern Railway employees - 439 gazetted and 62,267 non-gazetted staff - are presently covered under the National Pension Scheme (NPS), which is popularly known as the new pension scheme. These employees covered under the new pension scheme would become eligible for exercising options for the Unified Pension Scheme, thus benefiting from assured pension, the SR release said.

Under the UPS, employees would be eligible for an assured pension of 50% of their average basic pay drawn over the last 12 months prior to superannuation for a minimum qualifying service of 25 years.

An assured family pension of 60% of the pension of the employee immediately before his/her demise and an assured minimum pension of Rs 10,000 per month on superannuation after a minimum of 10 years of service would be the other features of the scheme.

Inflation indexation would be done on assured pension, family pension, and assured minimum pension. Dearness relief will be based on the All India Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (AICPI – IW) as in the case of service employees and lump sum at superannuation in addition to gratuity 1/10th of monthly emoluments (pay + DA) as on the date of superannuation for every completed six months of service, is another feature.