STANDING COMMITTEE DISCUSSIONS ON MODIFICATIONS

Dear Comrades,

 

The gist of discussions held in the meeting of the Standing Committee of JCM National Council is circulated by the Confederation. The Circular of the Confederation is placed hereunder:

 

 

CONFEDERATION OF CENTRAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES AND WORKERS

 

 

No.D.11/05/08    Dated: 07.05.08

 

 

Dear Comrade,

 

The first meeting of the Standing Committee after the 6^th CPC submitted its report to the Government took place today.  The meeting was chaired by the Secretary Personnel, in the presence of the Secretary Expenditure.  The subject matter of discussion at the meeting was the formulations made by the Staff Side JCM for effecting changes in the recommendations of the Commission.  At the outset the Secretary (Personnel) stated that the meeting was convened with the objective of understanding the views of the employees on various recommendations of the Commission, so that he would be able to present the same before the Committee of Secretaries.  A brief resume of the discussions is placed hereunder:

 

1. Minimum wage:

 

The Staff Side presented a report of the Survey conducted by the ASSOCHAM during the period between 2003 and 2008 over the price movement of various essential goods, which had indicated that the price differential between the WSP and retail prices in most parts of the country was of the order of 60 to 70% and contended that the estimation made by the Commission by adding  20% to the whole prices of commodities to arrive at the retail price was erroneous.  This apart the exclusion of 25% to be added for the purpose of meeting certain social obligations and 1/9^th for the purpose of meeting the housing requirement were also effectively contested.  The Staff side pointed out that one of the most important ingredient in the 25% addition as per the Supreme Court decision is to provide for old age social security which has now assumed importance in the light  of the government's decision to make the pension scheme contributory for the employees who enters the Government service after 1.4.2004.  The Staff side also drew the attention of the Secretary Personnel to the provisions of  45A and 45C of the Fundamental Rules and Section 10(13) read with rule 2A of the IT Act to establish the necessity of addition of  1/9^th for the purpose of housing in  the computation of Minimum wage as per the 15^th ILC norms, which the Commission had excluded on the specious plea that the Central Govt. employees are granted HRA separately.  It was pointed out that the earlier Pay Commissions had computed the minimum wage as per the ILC norms and the Govt. would do well to look into it to understand the fallacy in the omission made by the 6^th CPC. The Staff side also pointed out that the minimum wage computed by the 6^th CPC is even less than the amount had the formula adopted by the 5^th CPC been followed.

There had been no cogent explanation from the official side except stating that it was a conscious decision taken by the 6^th CPC, to the query as to why the 12% additional DA granted on account  of DA merger has not been taken into account and as to how is  it justified to exclude certain emoluments already granted and paid be taken back by the Commission. 

 

2.      Fitment formula

The rationale behind the demand raised by the Staff Side was explained in detail.  It was pointed out that the multiplication factor both in respect of the PB 1 at the minimum and PB 3 at the minimum being at 2.6, there had been no rationale on the part of the Pay Commission to suppress the fitment formula.  The staff side also informed the official side that their suggestion would bring about a uniform benefit of 41% for all employees.  The fitment benefit granted by the Commission vary violently from Pay band 1 and 2 ie. Pertaining to the non gazetted employees vis a vis in the case of officers I;e. those in the pay bands of P 3 and P 4.

                                    3. Rate of increment.

      It was reiterated that the rate of increment suggested by Commission i.e 2.5% is lesser than the average  rate of increment available under the 5^th CPC dispensation.  The demand for affording the rate of increment at 5% is based upon the practice prevailing in the PSUs.  The Official side was also informed of the recent order of the Government by which it has permitted wage revision in the case of  PSUs  after a residency  period between 5 and10 years. In the absence of any recommendation by the 6^th Commission of the probable next wage revision, the Staff side stated that it is necessary to ensure that  the employees get a 5% rise in emoluments to ensure that at least the existing relativity in wages between the CGEs and the PSU workers are not further widened.

  4.   Transport allowance.

 The two points made out by the Staff Side was (i) to increase the allowance appropriately to take into account the errata issued by the Commission after the presentation of the report to the Government and the merger of CCA with the Transport allowance and (ii) the necessity of treating a portion of this allowance for the computation of overtime allowance as presently CCA is taken for that purpose

 

5. Fixation of pay on Promotion

The Staff side reiterated its submission that under the present dispensation the benefit on promotion would be very meager. Under the existing scheme not only more than one increment benefit had been derived by the employees but a minimum benefit of Rs. 100 had also been stipulated to ensure that the Group D employees whose rate of increments had been less than Rs. 100 do derive atleast Rs. 100 rise on promotion.  In that context the Staff Side said that the minimum benefit on promotion should be prescribed at 10% of the salary.

6.   On Bonus.

 

It was mentioned by the Staff Side that Bonus had been the product of a bilateral settlement and the Government had granted adhoc bonus after a prolonged struggle. The 5^th CPC had recommended to replace the adhoc bonus by PLB as such conversion was feasible in many organization, perhaps with the only exception of the Central Secretariat.  The Government should therefore discuss the issue with the concerned organisagtions in the respective departmental councils to bring about the productivity linked bonus scheme.  It was categorically informed to the official side that the Staf Side will not agree for replacing the existing bonus scheme with a performance related incentive,

 

7.   7. Special duty allowance of North Eastern Region.

 

      While welcoming the recommendations made in this regard by the Commission the staff side brought to the notice of the official side that the benefit of SDA should be available for those who are initially recruited also and not only for those who are posted on transfer to NE region.

 

8    Daily allowance on tour:

            The Staff side requested that the Government should issue instruction not to insist upon the production of bills for the expenditure incurred in connection with food and local transportation and increase its rates.

.

9.   Promotion. ACP Scheme.

The modification suggested by the Commission to do away with the hierarchical set up in the matter of ACP, the staff side pointed out would not be acceptable.  Instead of removing the horizontal anomalies, the extant suggestion would create anomalies within vertically.          Since normal promotion itself is not uniform in its horizontal application, to bring about uniformity in ACP would be difficult.  The Staff side was of the opinion that the delayering exercise undertaken by the Commission to a great extent was capable of removing the horizontal distinction in the ACP. They also pleaded for effecting improvement in the scheme by enlarging its scope from two financial up-gradation to three.

 

10.  Anomaly in grade pay and Pay bands.

 

The Staff side brought to the notice of the official side that the Commission had not even adhered to its own recommendation in the construction of pay bands.  As per its own recommendations, the pay bands ought to have been constructed by applying the multiplication factor of 1,74 of the minimum of the highest scale of pay in the bunch of scales of pay that had been merged.  This has not been done.  The Pay bands in PB 1 and 2 has been constructed by applying the multiplication factor of 1.74 to the minimum of the lowest scale of pay in the bunch Though the official side contested this contentions, ultimately they had to agree to the point raised by the staff side. The resentment of the Group B Officers, who were in the time scale of pay of RS. 6500-10,500 over the merger of that scale of pay along with 5000-8000 and 5500-9000 was also brought out.  When it comes to the construction of pay bands 3 and 4, the staff side pointed out that none of the principles had been applied and in some cases the multiplication factor has been more than even 2,74 in the place of general MF of 1.74

 

 

      11.  Pension

 

While appreciating that most of its suggestions made to the Commision had been accepted, the Staff side requested that its formulation made before the Secretary (Pension) might be considered.  Inter alia it asked for raising the minimum pension, pleaded for the rejection of the recommendation for  revising the commutation table and the restoration of the commuted amount after 12 years as the Govt. was getting back the entire amount of commuted value along with interest  within that period. The Staff side demanded that pension must be computed after fixing the notional pay of pensioners as on 1.1.1996.

 

12. Advances:

It was pleaded by the Staff Side that the Advances should not be outsourced to Banks unless a workable and problem free system acceptable to the employees are worked out.

 

13    CGHS

      The Staff side made it clear that the recommendation for making the medi insurance scheme mandatory for the future employees  and future pensions was not acceptable to them.  They said that any new scheme in replacement of the existing one should only be made optional.

 

14. Group D functions

      To a specific query raised by the Staff Side, It was made clear by the official side that in future too, to carry on the Group D functions in Governmental organizations recruitment would be resorted to.  However, the recruitment would hereafter be only in Group C cadre with the stipulation that those recruited will have to carry on with multi-skilled functions. In other words, Government service would not be available for non matriculates.

 

15. In conclusion of the discussion, the Secretary Personnel said that the views of the Staff Side would be presented to the Committee of Secretaries and if necessary, the Committee of Secretaries would also meet the staff side.  It was also told that as per the present plan, the Committee of Secretaries would like to submit its views and final proposal to the Government by 30^th June, 2008.

 

            With greetgings,

 

Yours fraternally,

 

 

K.K.N.Kutty

Secretary General

 

 

--
K.Ragavendran
Secretary General NFPE