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.
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
(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.
- See more at: http://paycommissions.blogspot.in/2016/02/minutes-of-meeting-of-joint-secretary-ic-with-the-members-of-ncjcm-staff-side-held-on-19-02-2016-07th-cpc-implementation.html#more
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