A
Meeting was held under the chairmanship of Joint Secretary (Implementation
Cell), Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, with the Members of the
StaffSide of the Standing Committee (National Council-JCM) on 19.2.2016 to
discuss the issues raised by the National Joint Council of Action (NJCA) {Joint
Consultative Machinery (JCM)} in their letter No. NJC/2015/7th CPC dt.
10.12.2015, addressed to the Cabinet Secretary, regarding their Charter of
Demands on the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission. The
Secretary, Staff-Side of the Standing Committee (National Council- JCM), who is
the convener of the NJCA, along with other office bearers attended the
meeting.
The list of the participants from the Staff-Side is attached at
Annexure. 2. Welcoming the members of the Staff-Side, JS(IC) mentioned that the
meeting has been convened to enable the Staff-Side to bring out their concerns
on the recommendations of the 7th CPC in the light of the Charter of Demands
made by them in the aforesaid letter of NJCA so that same could be examined in
the Implementation Cell and submitted for consideration of the Empowered
Committee of Secretaries. He informed the office bearers that before arriving
at a decision, the ECoS would also hold separate discussions with the Staff
Side.
2. Commencing the discussions from the Side of the Members
of the Staff-Side, Secretary, Staff-Side, Standing Committee (National
Council-JCM), explained that they have already placed their Charter of Demands
as per the letter of NJCA dated 10.12.2015. He mentioned that the reasons based
on which these demands have been made have also been explained therein. He,
however, highlighted that the Staff-Side is not at all happy with the
recommendations of the 7th CPC and, in fact, no section of the employees is
satisfied, as the Commission has recommended a minimal pay increase as compared
to the previous Pay Commissions. He mentioned that the Staff-Side does not
agree with the minimum pay of Rs. 18000 and the reason as to why the
methodology adopted by the 7th CPC to arrive at this figure is not correct has
been explained in their letter dated 10.12.2015. He stated that Staff-Side
demands enhancement of the minimum pay to Rs. 26000 and the reasons in support
of this have been given in their aforesaid letter. He further stated that an
amicable and mutually negotiated settlement of these demands is necessary as
non-acceptance would further cause resentment in the employees. He informed
that Staff-Side has already made their stand clear to go on strike from 11th
April, 2016 if their demands are not considered and no amicable settlement
happens. 3. Thereafter, the other members of the Staff-Side also expressed
their arguments for acceptance of these demands and all of them emphasised that
the minimum pay needs to be revised. Consequently, the fitment multiple of 2.57
would also need commensurate change. The leader of the Staff-Side explained
that the office bearers who were present in the meeting represent various
sections of Central Government employees including railways, defence civilians,
postal employees etc., the number of which is around Rs. 32 lakhs. Contd.. -2-
4.
The Staff-Side brought out their concerns on all the 26 demands
included in the Charter of Demands and all the points brought out by them in
the letter of the NJAC dt. 10.12.2015 were reiterated. However, following
issues in support of their demands were highlighted :- (i) Minimum Pay needs to
be revised to Rs. 26000 p.m. and the minimum pay of Rs. 18000 p.m. as
recommended by 7th CPC is not acceptable. This would require upward revision in
the fitment multiple of 2.57 and change in the Pay Matrix. It was argued that
if the 10% of the pay for NPS contribution and the recommended increase in the
CGEIS contribution are taken into account, there would be a drop in the
take-home salary of the employees at the minimum pay of Rs.18000. (ii) Central
Government employees need to be excluded from the National Pension Scheme
(NPS), which has been a long pending demand of the StaffSide. The Staff-Side
stated that the Pension Fund which has been created under NPS to generate
annuity for employees, would not ensure reasonable pension. Rather it is quite
likely that it may generate negative returns because of the dismal performance
of the financial market to which the fund is invested, leaving the employees
without any reasonable social security benefit. (iii) The 7th CPC has
recommended abolition of 52 allowances without properly appreciating the
justification of these allowances. The example of break-down allowance in case
of Railway employees was given, stating that this allowances is given so that
the concerned employees take up the necessary follow up action in the case of
breakdown on an urgent basis and therefore its withdrawal is not justified in
operational interests of Railways. (iv) The withdrawal of advances, especially
LTC, TA, Medical, National Calamity Advance, was not justified. It was argued
that these advances are recovered from the employees and, therefore, the same
should be retained.
(v) In regard to enhancement of contribution under Group
Insurance Scheme, it was argued that increase in the contribution from the
employees was not justified and if the same is to be raised, the Government
should bear the insurance premium.
(vi) The post of LDC should be upgraded to UDC and as part of
delayering, Grade Pays of Rs. 1900, Rs. 2400 and Rs. 4600 should be abolished
and merged with the next higher Grades.
(vii) The rate of increment needs to be raised from 3% to 5%
because pay is revised in the Central Government after 10 years. It was
mentioned that in the PSUs the pay is revised after 5 years and the rate of
increment is also higher.
(viii) Two increments in the feeder post may be granted as
promotion benefit. (ix) Fixed medical allowance for pensioners who are not
covered by CGHS and REHS needs to be increased from Rs. 500 p.m. to Rs. 2000
p.m.
(x) The recommendation regarding grant of only 80% of salary for
the second year of Child Care Leave need not be accepted and the existing
provisions may be retained Contd.. -3-
(xi) It was also demanded that though the D/o Expenditure has
sought the comments of the Ministries/Department on the issues pertaining to
them after consulting the Staff Associations, administrative Departments are
not inviting the Staff associations for discussions. 5. After detailed
explanation by the Staff-Side on all the demands included in the Charter of
Demands, JS(IC), while concluding the discussions, assured the Staff-Side that
the concerns and demands made by them would be placed before the Empowered
Committee of Secretaries for consideration after examining the same in the
light of the recommendations of the Commission.
He also mentioned that in cases where the comments of the
administrative Ministries/ Departments would be necessary, e.g., the case of
break-down allowance pertaining to Ministry of Railways, the same would be
considered before the issues are placed before the E-CoS. As regards the issue
raised that the administrative Departments are not inviting staff associations
for discussions, JS(IC) mentioned that the Departments have to formulate the
views keeping in view the representations made by the Staff Associations. 6.
Thereafter, the meeting ended with thanks to the chair.
**** Annexure Members of the Staff side of the National
Joint Council (JCM), who attended the meeting with JS (IC) held on 19.02.2016
-7th Central Pay Commission S.No Name (S/Shri) 1. Shiva Gopal Mishra 2.
M.Raghavaiah 3. N.Kanniah 4. Guman Singh 5. K.K.N.Kutty 6. C.Srikumar 7.
S.N.Pathak 8. Ashok Singh 9. R.N.Prashar 10. M.S. Raja 11. Giri Raj singh 12.
Satish Chander 13. R.Srinivasan
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