Minutes
of the Meeting of Joint Secretary (IC) with the Members of the Staff-Side of
the Standing Committee (National Council-JCM) held on 19.02.2016
1.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.
