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

7th CPC: Unions reject Centre's pay hike, threaten to go on strike

NEW DELHI: The Confederation of Central Government Employees on Wednesday rejected the pay hike announced by the government and threatened to go on a strike next week, a decision which got support from the central trade unions.
The Confederation said the pay hike approved by the Cabinet on the 7th Central Pay Commission’s recommendations is “not acceptable”.
RSS affiliate Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) and other trade unions also rejected the hike, saying this is the lowest increase in the past 17 years that would increase disparity between the minimum and maximum pay.
ALSO READ: Pay Commission bounty for Govt staff; Ten things you must know
Central trade unions have also sided with government employees and have given a call to hold nationwide demonstrations against the pay hike.
“In the prevailing economic conditions, the proposed hike as per the Pay Commission is inadequate. It is not acceptable to us,” M Duraipandian, General Secretary, Confederation of Central Government Employees and Workers, Tamil Nadu, said.
He added the Confederation will be forced to advance the indefinite strike call to July 4 instead of July 11, if the government does not heed to its demand of revising the hike.
Earlier in the day, its members staged a demonstration at Rajaji Bhavan in Chennai, home to several state government’s offices.
All India Trade Union Congress Secretary D L Sachdev said: “It is the lowest increase in last 17 years. Central trade unions will support the strike call given by central government employees.”
While, BMS said it will organise country-wide protests on July 8 against the decision, adding the government has “disappointed” the employees and it may lead to industrial unrest.
“The formula should be 3.42 instead of 2.57 as approved by the government. Similarly the annual increment should be 5 per cent instead of 3 per cent given. The disparity between the minimum and maximum pay has also been increased,” BMS General Secretary Virjesh Upadhyay said.
In a statement, he said the Sangh will organise protests across the country in all districts on July 8 and will discuss on the alternative of going on a strike at its national executive in August.
BMS also demanded for a uniform minimum pay of Rs 18,000 per month to all the workers including the private sector.

The BJP-led NDA government on Wednesday announced an overall increase of 23.5 per cent for over one crore government employees and pensioners in line with the Seventh Pay Commission’s recommendations, which left most services dissatisfied. The hikes will come with the August paychecks and be paid with effect from January 1, 2016. The arrears for the six months will be disbursed during the current financial year (2016-17) itself.

In November 2015, within the overall hike of 23.55-per cent, the pay panel had recommended increases of 16% in pay and 24 per cent in pensions. The starting salary for new recruits at the lowest level has been raised to Rs. 18,000 from Rs. 7,000 per month. Freshly recruited Class I officers will receive Rs. 56,100. This reflects a compression ratio of 1:3.12 signifying that the pay of a Class I officer on direct recruitment will be three times the pay of an entrant at the lowest level.

The approved maximum pay, drawn by the Cabinet Secretary, is Rs. 2.5 lakh per month (against the current Rs. 90,000), higher than the salaries drawn by MPs.

To examine the concerns employees have raised, the Union Cabinet decided to set up four committees: The first will look into the implementation issues anticipated and the second one will go into the likely anomalies. Another one will further examine the recommendations on allowances, which have largely been kept on hold. The fourth will suggest measures for streamlining the National Pension System.

Nod for new pay matrix

The Union Cabinet dispensed with the present system of pay bands and grade pay and okayed a new pay matrix as recommended by the Pay Commission.

Employee status, hitherto determined by grade pay, will now be determined by the level in the pay matrix. Separate pay matrices have been drawn up for civilians, defence personnel and for Military Nursing Service with all existing levels subsumed in the new structure; no new levels have been introduced nor has any level been dispensed with.

Gratuity ceiling raised

The gratuity ceiling stands enhanced from Rs. 10 lakh to 20 lakh. The ceiling on gratuity will increase by 25 per cent whenever dearness allowance rises by 50 per cent.

The Cabinet also approved the recommendation of the commission to enhance the ceiling of house building advance from Rs. 7.5 lakh to Rs. 25 lakh. All but four interest-free advances have been abolished

“The fifth and sixth pay commissions had narrowed the gap between salaries paid in the private and government sectors…the seventh has moved further in the same direction. An IIM-Ahmedabad study has found that pay in the government sector is distinctly greater than that in the private sector so there can’t be protests from employees,” said Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.