Violence has continued in Bangladesh for months, with railway workers now creating trouble for the Yunus government. Train services in Bangladesh have come to a halt as railway workers went on a nationwide indefinite strike demanding benefits for overtime work, affecting hundreds of thousands of people.

Bangladesh Railway Running Staff and Workers Association is on strike due to problems related to pension and gratuity benefits. Railway employees have gone on strike due to a long-standing dispute over overtime pay and pension benefits. Its union said that they have given time till Monday to the authorities to meet their demands.

Operations of 400 passenger trains affected

The strike affected the operations of nearly 400 passenger trains, including over 100 inter-city services and more than three dozen freight trains operated by Bangladesh Railway. The railway carries about 250,000 passengers daily.

What did the Railway Ministry say?

Train passengers will be allowed to use their pre-booked tickets on bus services running on some important train routes from Tuesday, Bangladesh's Railway Ministry said.

The Railway Ministry in a statement appealing to the employees to withdraw the strike said,

Why did the workers go on strike?

• As per the rules, a running staff member is entitled to rest for 12 hours on returning to his headquarters or 8 hours when posted outside.
• If it is necessary to work during rest hours for the benefit of railway operations, overtime money is paid.

these people do overtime

Railway workers in Bangladesh, including drivers, assistant drivers, guards and ticket checkers, routinely work more than the scheduled hours due to manpower shortages. In return, they traditionally receive extra pay with pension benefits calculated on those extra hours.

people are having trouble

"We had train tickets for this afternoon to attend a music concert," said Reza Fakir, a native folk singer from the southwestern district of Kushtia. "But now we have to buy bus tickets to go there, so we have to pay double."