Wage hike in 7th Pay Commission and Trade Union Action

Wage hike in 7th Pay Commission and Trade Union Action

Wage hike and trade union action

Comrades ,
The 7th CPC has cheated the 35 lakhs Central Government Employees and 50 lakhs pensioners, by announcing meagre 14.29% wage hike, in actual term of increase for serving employees after deduction of Income tax, enhanced subscription of CGEIS, licence fee, CGHS etc the net increase is actually varies from 1% to 4 % increase.

The similar situation was existing for central Government employees during the 5th CPC , as the 5th CPC had recommended 20% wage hike after strike notice was served then the Third Front Government agreed to provide 40% wage hike, recently the 6th CPC had provided 54% wage hike.This is lowest wage hike by any pay commission.

The Central Government Employees are having 10 years wage revision against the basic principle of 5 years wage revision adopted by all other Government agency such as Banks Employees, PSU employees etc. The bank employees were initially offered around 10% wage hike , after sustained trade union action they got 15% wage hike from with effect from 1st November 2012. Cumulatively it works out to more than 35 % wage hike for 10 years. The AP and Telangana state government employees got recently 40 % wage hike the pay commission of AP had also adopted Dr. Aykroyd formula and 15th ILO norms and fixed at Rs 13,000/- minimum wage as on 1st July 2013 , if we calculate the minimum wage on this basis for the Central Government Employees the minimum wage works out to Rs 25,000/- and fitment formula of 3.57 .

Comrades let us fight united under the NJCA banner to achieve a decent wage hike, the 7th CPC has erred in the calculation of minimum wage for the Central Government Employees it has fixed at Rs 18000/ against the staff side demand of Rs 26,000/-. while calculating the minimum wage as per Dr. Aykroyd formula and 15th ILO norms the 7th CPC has taken wrong prices of the essential items for example the price of one kg of pulses as Rs 97.84 against the market price of Rs 180/- , similarly the price of one kg of rice and wheat as Rs 25.93 against the market price of Rs 50/- & Rs 40, and 7th CPC has modified the Dr. Aykroyd formula and 15th ILO norms. The 7th CPC has taken 125% DA into consideration, at present the DA is likely to cross 125% , the prices of essential commodity including rice and pulses are showing increase in last month and further rise due to floods and draught in many states.

Overall the 7th CPC has erred in calculation of minimum wage for the Central Government Employees there by denying the correct fitment formula and justify wage hike. Comrade it is time to mobilize, educate and prepare for trade union action. Like bank employees we should also get justify wage agreement.

Comradely yours

(P.S.Prasad)
General Secretary

Source: http://karnatakacoc.blogspot.in/

Interesting Statistics from the 7th Pay Commission Report – Part 2

Interesting Statistics from the 7th Pay Commission Report – Part 2

According to the 7^th Central Pay Commission Report, close to 29% of the employees are in the age group of 50 to 60 years. More than 44% of the employees are in the age group of 20 to 40 years. The average per capita expenditure on pay & allowances of a central government employee is 3.92 lakh rupees for the financial year 2012-13.

The Part 1 of this series looked at the number of vacancies, number of employees in various ministries/departments and number of employees by different categories in Government of India. Below are a few more interesting statistics from the CPC report.

Employee Age Profile

There is more or less an even spread of employees in different age groups. 22% of the employees are between 20 and 30 years while an equal percentage are between 30 and 40 years. 26% of the employees are between 40 and 50 years while the remaining 29% are between 50 and 60 years.

There are stark differences within ministries in the age profile of employees. The Ministry of Home Affairs has the highest percentage of employees in the 20 to 30 years bracket at 40%. This could be due to the fact that most of them come from the central armed forces. The Ministry of Petroleum & Ministry of Textiles, both have just 2% employees each in this age group.

In the 30 to 40 years age group, Ministry of Youth Affairs has the highest percentage at 29% and Ministry of Coal has the least at 7%. In the 40 to 50 years age group, Ministry of Tourism has the highest percentage with a whopping 65% while the Ministry of Textiles has the least percentage at 15%.

In the 50 to 60 years age group, Ministry of Textiles has the highest at 75%. Coupled with the other figures, 90% of the employees in the Ministry of Textiles are above 40 years. The Ministry of Home Affairs has only 7% employees in this age group.

Expenditure on Pay & Allowances
The Government of India extends various types of allowances to the employees apart from their regular pay. The government expenditure on pay & allowances has been steadily growing. From 51664 crore rupees in 2007-08, the expenditure went up to 129599 crore rupees in 2012-13, an increase of more than 150%. The growth has been steady except in 2010-11 where it increased only marginally.

Of the total expenditure, the highest expenditure is on the Ministry of Railways, followed by the Ministry of Home Affairs. This is only natural because they employ the maximum number of people.

Per Capita Expenditure on Pay & Allowances

The per capita expenditure on pay & allowances indicates that the government has spent Rs 3.92 lakh per employee during the financial year 2012-13 towards pay and allowances.

The highest per capita expenditure on pay & allowances is for the employees of the Ministry of External Affairs at Rs 34.95 lakh per annum. This is an aberration since it also includes pay & allowances paid abroad. Second in the list is Ministry of Renewable Energy with 10.65 lakh rupees followed by Ministry of Food Processing at 8.29 lakh rupees. Department of Electronics & IT and Ministry of Power make up the top five. The per capita expenditure for these departments & ministries is substantially higher than the average.

While the Ministry of Railways & Home Affairs have seen the highest expenditure for pay & allowances, their per capita expenditure compared to the average is not the highest. The average pay & allowances was least for the Ministry of Railways at Rs 2.97 lakh while it was Rs 4.18 lakh for Ministry of Home Affairs.

Interesting Statistics from the 7th Pay Commission Report – Part 1

Interesting Statistics from the 7th Pay Commission Report – Part 1

The 7th Central Pay Commission submitted its report recently, recommending a slew of measures including fixing the minimum pay of a central government employee at Rs 18000. In a two part series, we look at some of the interesting statistics from this report.

The 7th Central Pay Commission(CPC) submitted its report recently. Among other things, it fixed the minimum pay in the central government at Rs 18,000/- and the maximum pay at Rs 2,25,000 at the apex level and Rs 2,50,000 for the Cabinet Secretary, Defence Chiefs etc. Here is a look at some of the interesting statistics from this report.

18% Vacancies in the Central Government

As per the CPC report, the sanctioned strength of all the departments of Government of India (including Railways) is 40.48 lakh as of 1^st January 2014. Out of the sanctioned strength, only 33.01 lakh are in position, while the rest of the  7.47 lakh are lying vacant. In other words, there is are 18% vacancies in the government of India.

The Ministry of Science & Technology has 47% vacancies followed by Ministry of Finance at 46%. The other ministries that have more than 40% vacancies include Power, Civil Aviation, AYUSH, Minority Affairs & Corporate Affairs. The Election Commission also has 43% vacancies.

Railways has the largest number of employees with over 13 lakh people
Of all the ministries, the Railways has the largest number of employees with over 13 lakh followed by the Ministry of Home Affairs with over 9 lakh employees, with bulk of them from the Central Reserve forces. The Ministry of Defence has close to 4 lakh employees (excluding the military personnel). The Ministry of Communications & Information Technology has close to 2 lakh employees with bulk of them from the Department of Posts. The Ministry of Finance has close to a lakh employees with bulk of them from the Central Board of Direct Taxes and Central Excise & Customs. The Delhi Police has more than 70000 employees.

The Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation has the least number of employees with just 78 followed by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj with 82 employees. This is because both the ministries are not directly implementing any scheme, but are only funding the states.

89% of all the employees are from Group C

All Central Government civil posts are categorised under the Central Civil Services Rules, 1965 into three categories- Group `A’ (including the All India Service Officers), Group `B’ and Group `C’. This classification broadly corresponds to the rank, status and the degree of the level of responsibility attached to the posts. Group `A’ posts carry higher administrative and executive responsibilities and include senior management positions in the ministries/departments and field organisations. The middle and junior levels of Group `A’ along with Group `B’ constitute middle management. Group `C’ posts perform supervisory as well as operative tasks and render clerical assistances in ministries and field organisations. As per the CPC report, close to 88% of all the employees is Group C while only 3% is Group A and 9% from Group B.
The ministry of Railways has the highest number of Group C employees (close to 99%). Only 1% of the railway employees are from Group A & B. The Ministry of Home Affairs has 92% from Group C.
There are some Ministries/Departments that defy this trend and have a large number of employees in Group A. Department of Space has 57% Group A employees and same is the case with Department of Electronics & IT.

Reservation in promotion – Minister replied in Rajya Sabha

Reservation in promotion – Minister replied in Rajya Sabha

The DoPT Minister replied in Parliament, while answering a question about the stand of Central Government on reservation in promotion cases involving Central Government employees as follows…

“The reservation in promotion is provided to Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) at the rate of 15% and 7.5% respectively in posts and services under the Central Government. As on 1.1.2013, the representation of SCs and STs was 17.55% and 7.72% respectively.

The Hon’ble Supreme Court, on 19.10.2006, in the matter of M. Nagaraj & Ors. V/s Union of India, while upholding the validity of the Constitutional Amendments made in favour of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, inter-alia, observed that the State will have to collect quantifiable data of backwardness, inadequacy of representation before providing reservation in promotion.

In order to provide impediment free reservation in promotion to SCs and STs, the Constitutional (One Hundred and Seventeenth Amendment) Bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha by the Government in September, 2012. The Bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha on 17.12.2012 and transmitted to the Lok Sabha for consideration and passing. The Bill could not be considered in the 15th Lok Sabha and lapsed on the dissolution of 15th Lok Sabha. The issues emanating from the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s judgment dated 19.10.2006 in M.Nagaraj case is under examination.”

Authority: Rajya Sabha Q&A

Abolishment of the practice of interview for Group B and C posts

Abolishment of the practice of interview for Group B and C posts

The Central Government has decided to dispense with the interview for all Group ‘C’ and non-gazetted Group ‘B’ category in Central Government by 31.12.2015. If a Department considers interview absolutely necessary for any specific posts, then clearance of Department of Personnel & Training is necessary.

Further, the State Governments have also been requested on 4th September 2015 and 29th September, 2015 to undertake similar exercise in respective States in consultation with State Public Service Commissions or other agencies involved in the recruitment for junior level posts. This issue was also deliberated during a meeting held on 8th September, 2015 and in a one day workshop organized on 16th November, 2015 in which the State Secretaries of Personnel/General Administration Department were invited.

This was stated by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Dr. Jitendra Singh in a written reply to a question by Shri Anil Desai in the Rajya Sabha today.

Instruction regarding simplified procedure for claiming Children Education Allowance: Revised Procedure: JCOS/ OR – PCDA(CC) Instruction

Instruction regarding simplified procedure for claiming Children Education Allowance: Revised Procedure: JCOS/ OR – PCDA(CC) Instruction

Office of the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Central Command)
Cariappa Road, Cantt., Lucknow, Pin Code – 226002

No.ORs Cell/07/PAO Cir

Dated: 07/12/2015

To,
The Officer – Incharge
All LAOs/ RAOs

Sub: Instruction regarding simplified procedure for claiming Children Education Allowance: Revised Procedure: JCOS/ OR (the involvement of LAOS in the Revised audit procedure for CEA claims).

Ref: This office letter No. even dated 10.06.15 (copy enclosed).

Please take the reference of above mentioned letter which has been forwarded to your office alongwith HQrs office letter No.AT/16/Appex-J/Revised 2011/VI dated 27.05.2015 (copy enclosed), stating that after implementation of HRMS 2.0, audit procedure of payment of CEA will undergo substantial change. These instructions, inter-aha, stipulate involvement of LAOS in carring out audit of CEA claims.

2. The HRMS 2.0 has since been implemented in PAO (OR) AMC and PAO(OR) 11 GRRC, Lucknow w.e.f. November 2015. It is, therefore, requested that JCOs ORS of the units whose Pay & allowances are maintained by PAO(AMC), PAO 11 GRRC and also fall under your audit jurisdiction, the CEA claims of JCOs/ OR of the those units will be post audited by your office.

3. Further, a meeting on monthly pay system for Pay and Allowances of JCOs/ OR and Dolphin security was held on 26th October, 2015 at HQrs office. It has been decided during the conference that LAOS should also be involved, may be once in a month, to find out the ground reality and to take up the matter with Unit authority to reduce percentage of DOS-II rejection.

4. It is, therefore, directed by the Competent Authority that LAOS will provide the list of units under their jurisdiction in r/o each of the six PAOS to the respective PAO I / Cs. PAOS will provide a list of rejected DOS II along with reasons of these units to LAOS to take up the matter with Unit authority to check whether action on rejection of DOs II is being taken by unit authorities to reduce percentage of DOS-II rejection. In case of NCC units, if the DOs II of ABF are being published at higher rate vis & vis the stipulated rates, LAOs may also test check the amount from original tickets kept in units.

It may please be noted for strict compliance. Compliance report may be communicated to this office.
Asst Controller(OR Cell)

Authority: http://pcdacc.gov.in/

Analysis and Recommendations of 7th Pay Commission on House Rent Allowance

Allowances related to Housing  : House Rent Allowance (HRA) : Presently, HRA is payable at the following rates:

There are a large number of demands for paying HRA as a percentage of (Basic Pay + DA), instead of as a percentage of Basic Pay alone, as at present. Representations have also been received regarding enhancement of percentage rates and having only two classifications of Metros and Non-metros (instead of the present classification of X, Y and Z cities).

PBORs of uniformed forces have vehemently argued for doing away with the concept of Authorized Married Establishment and the requirement of a minimum age of 25 years for grant of Compensation in Lieu of Quarters (CILQ).

Analysis and Recommendations: Compensation towards the housing needs of Central Government employees is covered in three ways:

1. As a component of Basic Pay when it is initially fixed (based upon the Aykroyd formula)
2. As a constituent of Dearness Allowance [the AICPI(IW), on which the DA is currently based includes a weight of 15.27% towards housing], and
3. In the form of House Rent Allowance

In view of the fact that the DA calculation methodology that is being followed does include a certain weightage for housing, the demand to pay HRA as a percentage of Basic Pay + DA is not justified.

To arrive at the appropriate rates of HRA, the Commission used a two-fold approach: (i) It compared the rise in housing compensation with the cost of housing in major X, Y and Z category cities over the period 2006 to 2013, and (ii) It compared, de novo, the HRA after the rise in Basic Pay proposed with representative house rents in major X, Y and Z category cities.

For (i) above, the table of comparison (for a hypothetical employee whose Basic Pay was Rs.1000 in 2006) is given below:

As is clear from the above table, compensation for housing in 2013 was 1.79 times that in 2006 for Class X cities, 2.07 times for Class Y cities and 2.92 times for Class Z cities.

During the same period, the weighted (by population of cities) average rise31 in housing index for Class X cities was 1.69 times, for thirty most populated Class Y cities it was 2.10 times, and for twenty-five most populated Class Z cities it was also 2.10 times.

Thus, it can be safely concluded that the rise in housing compensation has largely kept pace with the rise in rental values in all categories of cities.

However, if a zero-based comparison of HRA with house rents is carried out the Commission observed that today there are websites that give a good idea of the prevalent house rents in various cities. From the information available on the websites, it was observed that with the increase in Basic Pay proposed (and consequent rise in HRA with the rationalized percentages), most of the employees will be able to afford a rented house as per their entitlement.

The Commission also took note of the link between increase in HRA and increase in house rent. There was a sharp rise in the index from the first half of 2009, immediately following VI CPC recommendations. The All India House Rent Index32 chart given below demonstrates this:

Considering all these factors, and in line with our general policy of rationalizing the percentage based allowances by a factor of 0.8, the Commission recommends that HRA should be rationalized to 24 percent, 16 percent and 8 percent of the Basic Pay for Class X, Y and Z cities respectively.

However, the Commission also recognizes that with the current formulation, once the new pay levels are implemented, the compensation towards HRA will remain unchanged until such time as the pay and allowances are next revised. Going by the historical trend this event is likely to be a decade away. Some representations have been received stating that towards the later part of the ten year period the HRA compensation falls considerably short of the requirement. Having regard to this, the Commission also recommends that the rate of HRA will be revised to 27 percent, 18 percent and 9 percent when DA crosses 50 percent, and further revised to 30 percent, 20 percent and 10 percent when DA crosses 100 percent.

Currently, in the case of those drawing either NPA or MSP or both, HRA is being paid as a percentage of Basic Pay+NPA or Basic Pay+MSP or Basic Pay+NPA+MSP respectively. HRA is a compensation for expenses in connection with the rent of the residential accommodation to be hired/leased by the employee and is graded based on the level of the employee, and therefore should be calculated as a percentage of Basic Pay only. Add-ons like NPA, MSP, etc. should not be included while working out HRA.

7th CPC recommendations for Assistant Research Officers

7th CPC recommendations for Assistant Research Officers

Department of Higher Education : Assistant Research Officers, Central Hindi Directorate

With a cadre strength of 68 employees, the cadre of Research officers in the Central Hindi Directorate (CHD) is responsible for preparing the corpus for lexicographical assignments and curriculum for correspondence courses. Their cadre structure is as under:

The educational qualification required for the post of ARO is Master’s Degree plus three years’ experience in teaching or research.

Their association has demanded better pay scales on grounds of historical parity with University Lecturers.

Analysis and Recommendations : At the outset, it should be made clear that University Lecturers do not fall under the ambit of the Commission and they follow a pay structure that is different from Central Government employees. For e.g. their pay structure includes Grade Pays of Rs.6000, Rs.7000, Rs.8000, Rs.9000, etc. which are not present in the current pay structure of Central Government employees. Hence, any comparison with them would not be appropriate.

The Commission also notes that the post of Research Officer, which was hitherto in GP 4800, was upgraded and merged with the post of Assistant Director (L) recently, in June, 2014. No further change in the structure is now warranted. Accordingly, no recommendations are made.

7th Pay Commission in favor of Technical Operator(Drilling): Central Ground Water Board (CGWB)

7th Pay Commission in favor of Technical Operator(Drilling) 

Central Ground Water Board (CGWB)

Drilling Staff : The association has demanded that considering the nature of duties and responsibilities attached to the post of Technical Operators, it may be placed in GP 1900 at par with Technical Operators of Geological Survey of India (GSI). Further to this, the association has also demanded that Assistant Driller-cum-mechanic in the GP 2400 should be upgraded to GP 2800.

Analysis and Recommendations : The Commission has noted that the minimum qualification for entry into the post of Technical Operators is same in GSI as in CGWB although Technical Operators in the GSI are recruited in the GP 1900. The Commission has further noted that CGWB was set up after merging the Ground Water Wing of GSI with the Exploratory Tubewell Organization of India.

The Commission recommends that post of Technical Operator (Drilling) be given GP 1900 and be combined with the post of Compressor. However, the demand that Assistant Driller cum-Mechanic be placed in GP 2800 is not agreed to.