ORAL EVIDENCE BEFORE PAY COMMISSION BY THE JCM STAFF SIDE

Dear Comrades the Standing Committee of JCM National Council Staff Side had tendered Oral Evidence before the 6th Pay Commission on 16th, 17th and 18th April 2007 in New Delhi. The Circular of the Confederation in this regard is reproduced below:

 

 

 

CONFEDERATION OF CENTRAL GOVERNMENT

  EMPLOYEES AND WORKERS

Manishinath Bhawan

A/2/95 Rajouri Garden

New Delhi. 110 027

Phone No. 011 2510 5324 <> Fax 011 2510 5324

Mobile : 98110 48303

                                                                                               

Conf. Cir.5/2007.                                                                                 Dated: 20.04.2007.

 

Dear Comrades,

Oral evidence before the 6^th CPC-

Standing Committee Staff Side JCM.

On 16^th, 17^th and 18^th April, 2007, the standing Committee of the Staff Side JCM, National council, tendered evidence before the 6 ^th CPC on the three memorandum they had submitted to the Commission viz.

 

i.                      On interim Relief.

ii.                    On minimum wage, pay scales, Pay & Allowances,

iii.                   On pension.

Interim Relief:

On 16^th, the staff side presented before the Commission, the necessity for the grant of the Interim Relief we had demanded, i.e. 15% of  Pay + DP, subject to a minimum of Rs 1000/- as Interim Relief.  The Commission is of the view that

(i)                            since the Central Govt. employees are not in distress, they are not entitled for any  relief,

(ii)                           since the Commission has not yet come to any conclusion of the probable final wage structure, it may not be possible to determine the Interim relief,

(iii)                         any amount of Interim Relief if granted immediately  would only to add to the woes of inflation.

 

The Staff Side pointed out that the interim relief demanded by them was not in the nature of a relief as is understood by the Commission.   What they have demanded, they explained was only an advance payment to be adjusted against the final settlement or to be subsumed in the arrears of salary as the date of effect of the Commission's recommendation has to be 1.1.2006. They also added that they are entitled to the Interim relief because of the delay in setting up the commission itself.  If the I.R.is noted granted the employees will have to wait for 24 month even if the Commission adheres to the18months time schedule specified under the terms of reference.  They also brought to the notice of the commission that  if the arrears are to be drawn in one go, a large part of it has to be remitted back to the Govt. as tax and the employees will not be able to invest the same in any tax saving devices retrospectively.   It is however, evident that the Commission has almost made up its mind on this issue i.e. not to grant Interim Relief.

 

 

Minimum wage

The main memorandum was taken up for discussion on 17^th.  It is noted that:

 

1. The Commission will consider the minimum wage as per 15 ILC norms subject to verification of prices and the relevance and requirements of the addition made thereon by the staff side.
2. The desirability of having parity with the wages obtaining in PSUs will be borne in mind while computing the minimum wage.
3. They disfavored the rate of increase of NNP or GDP as a base for computation of minimum wage.
4. The reductions of the No. of employees between 1995 to 2006 as also the reduction of wage and allowances as a percentage to Revenue expenditure have been noted.
5. The submission of the staff side of the capacity of the Govt. to meet the additional expenditure due to revision will also be considered.

The staff side brought to the notice of the commission that the fixation of minimum wage by the successive commissions had the following impact:

                        2^nd CPC                        2.5 times

                        3^rd CPC                       2.6 times

                        4^th CPC                       3.2 times         

                        5^th CPC                       3.4 times

                        6^th CPC                       3.9 times if the demand of the staff side is accepted.

 

Proposed Pay Structure:

The staff side explained the rationale adopted by them in the construction of Pay Scales without any maximum and added that the conversion factor would ensure the existing relativities.   The change in the conversion factor for Pay scales upto S-5 and S-7 was also explained.  The Commission enquired in detail about the advantage of an open ended pay scale vis-à-vis a master scale of pay.

Date of effect

The Commission may concede the demand for giving effect to their recommendation from 1.1.2006

Allowances:

DA.  The Commission may propose that the present scheme for calculation of DA on the basis of all the India annual average CPI index (IW) might be continued.

 

HRA: The staff side demand for reducing the classification  of towns and cities into three  instead of  six will be considered.

CCA  The demand to replace the present slab system by percentage linked to basic pay would be looked into. The Staff side has also  stated that all allowances may be expressed in  terms of percentage of Basic Pay.

Transport Allowance: The Board of Arbitration award to link the allowance to Basic pay in place of the scale of   pay has been specifically presented before the Commission.

SDA: NE Region: The Commission may recommend removing the present discrimination.

Fixation on Promotion: The minimum benefit may be suitably revised.

Fixation in the revised scale: The staff side demanded for point to point fixation that might be considered by the Commission.

 

Classification of Posts: The present classification may Continue, without the nomenclature of Gazetted or Non-gazetted.

 

Pension: (Existing )

Commission was  of the opinion that to facilitate  easy exit the present pension i.e. 50% of salary might be made available to whoever wants to seek Voluntary Retirement after completion of 15/20 years of service.

Pension for those who superannuate might be at a higher percentage, as demanded by the staff side.

Increasing the rate of pension for those who live beyond the age of 70 will be considered.

Average emoluments may not undergo any change.  The anomalous situation that might arise in the transitory stage of wage revision might be taken care of.   The pensioners might be covered under a group insurance scheme for medicare.

The Commission may not look into the pension schemed for those who are recruited after 1.1.2004.

 

The Commission had been positive in its response to many of the staff side demands presented before them, except of course in the matter of grant of Interim Relief.

 

With greetings,

 

Yours fraternally,

 

 

K.K.N. Kutty,

Secretary General.

 

 

 

 

Kindly refer to the Confederation Circular letter No. 4/2007 dated 13.4.2007.  The JCA of Postal Federations has reached a settlement of their Charter of Demands and accordingly the Strike which was to commence from 24^th April, 2007 has been deferred. We, therefore, inform all affiliates and COCs that the solidarity actions proposed by us for 24^th and 26^th April, 2007 and the one day Strike slated for 3^rd May, 2007 stands withdrawn.

 

 

 

--
C.C.Pillai
Secretary General NFPE