Government assures Representatives of Unions representing employees of the Central Government that the issues raised by them relating to the pay scales and other recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission would be considered by a High Level Committee

Representatives of Unions representing employees of the Central Government had met the Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh, the Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley and the Minister for Railways Sh. Suresh Prabhu in the evening of 30th June, 2016.

They had requested that certain issues raised by them in relation to the pay scales and other recommendations of the Pay Commission be allowed to be raised before a Committee of Secretaries looking into different aspects of grievances of employees in relation to the Pay Commission recommendations.

The Ministers assured the Union leaders that the issues raised by them would be considered by a High Level Committee.

CHENNAI, July 5, 2016 Updated: July 5, 2016 07:51 IST 

NJCA defers indefinite strike

The National Joint Council of Action (NJCA), an umbrella organisation comprising various Central Government employees’ unions, has temporarily postponed the indefinite strike scheduled from July 11 after Prime Minister Narendra Modi formed a committee of Ministers to negotiate with union leaders on their demands.

NJCA convener (South Zone) N. Kanniah said even as the Cabinet approved the 7th Pay Commission, representatives of various unions, including the All India Railwaymen Federation, decided to go ahead with the proposed strike demanding a minimum pay of Rs. 26,000.

The claim that the government was giving a 14.28 per cent hike in pay was false since the calculations revealed an increase of only 11.31 per cent, which would further decline to 4.51 per cent after deductions towards provident fund and pension scheme contributions.

Mr. Kanniah, who is also the general secretary of Southern Railway Mazdoor Union, said the unions were opposed to privatisation and foreign direct investment in Defence, Railway etc.

“Since the Prime Minister has intervened and initiated the process of negotiation, we have decided to temporarily postpone the indefinite strike. The NJCA will make sure that the genuine demands of the employees are met with,” he said.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/njca-defers-indefinite-strike/ 

 

7th Pay Commission: Rail workers could be sacked, imprisoned if they join July 11 strike, says Railway Board

July 5, 2016 12:35 IST

By S V Krishnamachari

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.

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