7th Pay Commission News – No indication on revision of Fitment Formula, pay matrix

                              

7th Pay Commission News – No indication on revision of Fitment Formula, pay matrix – NJCA reports on 7th CPC Empowered Committee’s possible proposal for slight increase in minimum pay but no consequential increase in Fitment Formula and entire pay matrix

7th Pay Commission News – NJCA has issued a communication to all its constituent member orgainisations indicating the expected recommendations of Empowered Committee on 7th Pay Commission report. NJCA has observed as follows

1. Slight Increase in Minimum Pay more than what was recommended by 7th Pay Commission

2. However, increase in minimum pay is not going to result in consequential upward revision in fitment formula and pay matrix.

3. 7th Pay Commission has proposed for reduction in the HRA rate from the present of 30%, 20% and 10% to 24%, 16% and 8% respectively. There is no indication as such from Empowered Committee for restoring these HRA rates to the present level.

4. 7th Pay Commission has recommended for abolishing more than fify allowances. However, staff side is for restoring those allowances. The Empowered Committee may propose for forming a Committee by Government for getting its opinion on necessity of granting various allowances

5. As far as NPS scheme is concerned all Central Trade Unions an Federations are demanding for replacing the same with Old Pension Scheme (Defined Pension). It is expected that this matter may be referred by the Govt to a Committee formed for this purpose.

6. 7th Pay Commission has recommended for proving two options in respect of revision of present pension on implementation of its recommendations. As per first option (option 1), revsion pension will be determined on the basis of number of increments earned by the pensioner in the pay scale from thish he / she retired. Option 2 provides for arriving at the revised pension by multiplying the present pension with multiplication of factor of 2.57. A pensioner can choose any one of the options that is beneficial to him / her.

However, NJCA has now indicated that Department of Pension and Defence Ministry are against the option 1, as they are not possession of necessary records for revising the pension as per Option 1. As most of the pensioners would be benefited only if their pension is revised on the basis of increments earned by them, this will be great loss for them if Govt ignores 7th Pay Commission’s recommendations for revision of pension on the basis of increments earned by pensioners.

The extract of communication dated 27.05.2016, by NJCA is given below.

 NJCA

                                              National Joint Council of Action

                                        4, State Entry Road New Delhi-110055

                                 Ph: 011-23365912, 23343493, Fax: 23363167

                                                          No.NJCA/2016

 Dated May 27, 2016

All Constituent Organisations,

National Council(JCM)

Dear Comrades,

As there had been no response from the Government to our communication dated 2nd May, 2016, we decided to seek an appointment with the Cabinet Secretary. Accordingly a delegation consisting of the following members of the NJCA met Cabinet Secretary, Shrl P.K. Sinha on 26. May 2016.

Com. Shiva Gopal Misra Com.
Guman Singh
Corn. K.K.N. Rutty

From the discussions, it appears that, the Empowered Committee has made up their mind to recommend to the Government a slight increase in the Minimum Wage. No indication was however given as to the consequential revision of the Fitment Formula and Pay Matrix. There had also not been any hint about the need to restore the percentage of the HRA, which the 7th CPC has recommended for reduction. On Advances and Allowances, abolished, the Government might be advised to setup a committee to go into the matter and make suggestions. In the matter of the New Contributory Pension Scheme also, the Government might refer the demand to a committee.

On the question of pension benefit to the retired personnel, who are covered by the defined benefit pension scheme, the Cabinet secretary indicated that, both the Department of Pension and Defence Ministry were of the firm view that the first option recommended by the 7th CPC to bring about the parity with the past pensioners being infeasible and impracticable (due to the non-availability of the requisite records) might not be accepted and acted upon.

Surprised over this development, the delegation requested for an official formal meeting of the Standing Committee so that the considered views of the Staff Side could be presented. The delegation informed to the Cabinet Secretary that, non-acceptance of the recommendation of the 7th CPC in the case of pensioners will be extremely disappointing for them and will give rise to avoidable discontent. The Cabinet Secretary suggested to the Staff Side to reach out to the Department of Pension and Ministry of Defence in’ the matter. So far he is concemed; he is an open minded on this subject, provided it is workable.

The National JCA will meet on 3rd June 2016 at New Delhi to consider these developments and take appropriate decision.

Source: Confederation of Central Government Employees and Workers