The railway ministry has warned employees that if they go on strike
as planned on July 11 to protest against the recommendations of the 7th
Central Pay Commission (CPC), they could risk punitive action, including
dismissal from job, imprisonment and fines.
In a letter, the ministry's apex decision-making body — the Railway
Board — has referred to relevant provisions of the Railway Servants Act
to remind all railway offices to take appropriate steps in view of the
proposed strike by central government employees, including railway
workers, according to the Mint.
"Rule 237 of the code stipulates that whole time of a railway servant
is at disposal of the government, which pays him. Therefore, if any
railway servant willingly flouts this condition of service, then the
services are liable to be terminated after following the due procedure,"
the daily reported.
Last week, railway employees had staged a protest in Bidar,
Karnataka, over what they call "eye wash" in the name of salary hike
recommended by the 7th CPC.
"The much hyped pay commission report is an eye wash...the net result
is that we are getting less money than we could be getting after the
sixth pay commission,'' Ramesh Kumar, the south central railway
employees union Bidar unit president, told the Hindu.
Meanwhile, a message doing the rounds among Central government
employees suggests that the hike at the entry level is around Rs. 500
per month, after accounting for statutory deductions.
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 7th 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
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.
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...
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.
DON’T BELIEVE
IN RUMOURS. NO CHANGE IN THE NJCA DECISION TO GO ON STRIKE FROM 11TH
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 6th
July at 11:00 hrs., in JCM Office, 13-C, Feorzshah Road, New Delhi, for
taking appropriate decision.
NJCA MEETING HELD TODAY
(30th 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 7th 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 11TH
JULY 2016.
