7th Pay Commission: Govt 'considering' hiking minimum pay after unions threaten strike

Various trade unions had announced an indefinite strike on July 11 to protest over the pay hike, in the 7th Pay Commission, which was declared last week. Following the threat, the central government is "considering" increasing the minimum pay, Mint reported.
Central government employees who were disappointed with the minimum salary set at Rs. 18,000 in the seventh pay commission are demanding that the minimum salary be set at Rs. 26,000.

"They have fixed the minimum wage at a meagre Rs. 18,000 in the 7^th Pay Commission. In the last pay commission, the basic pay was Rs. 7,000. They multiplied it by 2.57 (according to the fitment formula) and came to Rs. 18,000. We are demanding 3.68 fitment formula," Shivgopal Mishra, General Secretary of National Joint Council of Action (NJCA), which is a confederation of several government staff unions was quoted as saying by Indo-Asian News Service (IANS).
According to sources quoted by the agency, the central government is considering increasing the minimum pay up to Rs. 20,000 and has indicated that the Rs. 26,000 figure demanded by the associations is not feasible.
"Increasing the minimum pay upto Rs. 26,000 as demanded by the employees union is not feasible in the present situation but the government is trying to find a way out," a government official was quoted as saying by IANS seperately.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and railway minister Suresh Prabhu reportedly met the representatives of employee unions late on Thursday and have assured them that their demands will be looked into.
"Three top ministers called us and we met at Rajnath Singh's house for two hours till 11pm last night. We have been assured that the minimum wage issue is going to be referred to one of two committees that the government is setting up to rectify any anomalies in the pay commission recommendations' implementation," Mishra was quoted as saying by Mint.
The NJCA council claims a membership of 3.3 million and this includes workers of Indian Railways as well.
However, with the assurance of the government of looking into the matter, the trade unions remain divided on whether to go ahead with the strike as planned on July 11, or to call it off. The unions would meet again on July 6 to decide the further course of action.
[1 lakh = 1

Armed forces unhappy with 7th Pay recommendations

The armed forces seems to be unhappy with the cabinet approval of the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations saying the anomalies that they had highlighted has not been taken care of.

Defence minister Manohar Parrikar admitted that “some” of the recommendations that he had strongly pushed on behalf of the armed forces have “not” been accepted.

We are still awaiting finer details to come out but on the look of it there are “not bright spots” as of now, defence sources said.

They said that the fact that the government has set up a committee to look into anomalies arising out of implementation of the Commission’s report is itself an indicator that their concerns have not been taken into account.

The only good feature is that instead of creating one committee like all previous government’s have done, this government has set up multiple ones to look into anomalies, allowance and others, the sources said.

Sources said the demand for uniform pay matrix has not been taken into account and that the allowances have not been brought at par with civilian employees.

Non implementation of common pay matrix means that defence pay matrix will be restricted to 24 pay levels even though the bureaucratic pay level is 40.

Another issue of concern is the non-implementation of Non Functional Upgradation (NFU) which would have allowed armed forces personnel to get upper grade of salary even when not promoted like their civilian counterparts.

One of the main grudge that the armed forces have is with regard to risk-hardship matrix. The officers say that a soldier posted in Siachen Glacier, which has the highest degree of both risk and hardship, gets an allowance of Rs 31,500 per month.

In contrast, a civilian bureaucrat from the All India Services draws 30 per cent of his salary as “hardship allowance” when posted anywhere outside the comfort zone.

Under the new scale, a senior IAS official posted in a city in northeast will draw much more as “hardship allowance”, compared to the Rs 31,500 per month drawn by military officers in Siachen. 

FM promises ‘minimum Pay’ 7th Pay Commission hikes

FM promises ‘minimum Pay’ 7th Pay Commission hikes

Jaitley has promised to consider to hike the minimum pay of central government employees beyond Rs 18,000, a day after the cabinet cleared 7th Pay Commission award for  More...

by Ila Choudhary | Published 12 hours ago

7th Pay Commission: Govt under strike pressure to hike minimum pay beyond Rs 18,000

7th CPC recommendations ‘worst’, will support Jul 11 strike by govt employees: Cong

New Delhi: Congress today came out in support of the proposed July 11 strike by central government employees in protest against the 7th Pay Commission recommendations which the party termed as the “worst” in the last 70 years and accused the Modi government of being “unjust” to them.

Senior party spokesman Ajay Maken

Senior party spokesman Ajay Maken said the central government employees are a “frustrated and disappointed” lot as the government decided “not to make improvement” in the recommendations.
“It is unfortunate that the employees, who were given 40 per cent hike in their respective pay in the past by previous governments, had now been recommended only 14.27 per cent. This is unjust and humiliating for the beneficiaries,” he told reporters.
Noting that the Federation of Government Employees, which includes employees of Indian Railways, civilian employees of Ordnance Factories and Post and Telegraph, has decided to go on strike from July 11 to express their resentment, he said “We support them and hope good sense will prevail and government of India will review the decision.”
“In the history of CPC in the last about 70 years, this is the worst recommendations and needed major surgery to make it acceptable to the employees and meet their expectation up to some extent,” Maken, a former Union Minister, said.
To a question about the recommendations with regard to the Armed Forces employees and whether Congress supports them, he replied in the affirmative.
“It is not that the Armed Forces are getting more and the others are getting less. Armed Forces are, rather in certain ways, are bigger sufferers.”, he remarked.
Making a strong pitch for a better deal to government employees, he asked “If you do not have the best brains working in the government, then how can you expect government or the government employees to protect the interest vis-a-vis the multi-nationals in this era of globalisation?”
An RSS-affiliate Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh has already raised a banner of revolt against the Centre’s decision on the Pay Commission recommendations and declared it would organise country-wide protests on July 8.

P

GOVT WANT TO REFER MINIMUM WAGE & FITMENT FORMULA TO A COMMITTEE

Friday, July 1, 2016

DON’T BELIEVE IN RUMOURS. NO CHANGE IN THE NJCA DECISION TO GO ON STRIKE FROM 11^TH JULY 2016.

NJCA WILL MEET AGAIN AT 11 AM ON 06.07.2016

NJCA

National Joint Council of Action

4, State Entry Road New Delhi – 110055

No. NJCA/2016                                                                                                   Dated: July 1, 2016

Dear Comrade!

We are to inform you that the NJCA had a discussion with the Government of India yesterday, i.e.30.06.2016 over certain demands contained in our Charter of Demands. In the meeting, following ministers were present: -

Shri Rajnath Singh, Hon’ble Home Minster

Shri Arun Jaitley, Hon’ble Finance Minister

Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, Hon’ble Railway Minister

Shri Manoj Sinha, Hon’ble MoS Railway

On behalf of the NJCA, the following participated in the discussion: -

Shri Shiva Gopal Mishra, Convener NJCA (AIRF)

Shri M. Raghavaiah, Chairman NJCA (NFIR)

Shri K. K. N, Kutty Member NJCA (Confederation)

Shri C. Srikumar, Member NJCA (AIDEF)

The government has proposed to refer the issue of Minimum Wage and Fitment Formula to a Committee for reconsideration.

The NJCA will await communication in the regard from the government.

The NJCA will again meet on 6^th July at 11:00 hrs., in JCM Office, 13-C, Feorzshah Road, New Delhi, for taking appropriate decision.

With Fraternal Greetings!

Sd/-

(Shiv Gopal Mishra)

NJCA TO GO ON INDEFINITE STRIKE FROM 11/07/2016

NJCA MEETING HELD TODAY (30^th JUNE) EVENING AT JCM NATIONAL COUNCIL STAFF SIDE OFFICE NEW DELHI, EXPRESSED ITS STRONG PROTEST AND DISSATISFACTION AGAINST THE UNILATERAL DECISION OF THE NDA GOVERNMENT ON 7^th CPC RECOMMENDATIONS, REJECTING ALL THE GENUINE AND JUSTIFIED MODIFICATIONS SOUGHT FOR BY THE NJCA AND UNANIMOUSLY DECIDED TO GO ON INDEFINITE STRIKE FROM 6 A.M. ON 11^TH JULY 2016.

NJCA CIRCULAR WILL FOLLOW.

M. KRISHNAN

SECRETARY GENERAL

CONFEDERATION