The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the implementation of the recommendations of 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC) on pay and pensionary benefits. It will come into effect from 01.01.2016.

In the past, the employees had to wait for 19 months for the implementation of the Commission’s recommendations at the time of 5th CPC, and for 32 months at the time of implementation of 6th CPC. However, this time, 7th CPC recommendations are being implemented within 6 months from the due date.

The Cabinet has also decided that arrears of pay and pensionary benefits will be paid during the current financial year (2016-17) itself, unlike in the past when parts of arrears were paid in the next financial year.

The recommendations will benefit over 1 crore employees. This includes over 47 lakh central government employees and 53 lakh pensioners, of which 14 lakh employees and 18 lakh pensioners are from the defence forces.

Highlights:

1. The present system of Pay Bands and Grade Pay has been dispensed with and a new Pay Matrix as recommended by the Commission has been approved. The status of the employee, hitherto determined by grade pay, will now be determined by the level in the Pay Matrix. Separate Pay Matrices have been drawn up for Civilians, Defence Personnel and for Military Nursing Service. The principle and rationale behind these matrices are the same.

2. All existing levels have been subsumed in the new structure; no new levels have been introduced nor has any level been dispensed with. Index of Rationalisation has been approved for arriving at minimum pay in each Level of the Pay Matrix depending upon the increasing role, responsibility and accountability at each step in the hierarchy.

3. The minimum pay has been increased from Rs. 7000 to 18000 p.m. Starting salary of a newly recruited employee at lowest level will now be Rs. 18000 whereas for a freshly recruited Class I officer, it will be Rs. 56100. This reflects a compression ratio of 1:3.12 signifying that pay of a Class I officer on direct recruitment will be three times the pay of an entrant at lowest level.

4. For the purpose of revision of pay and pension, a fitment factor of 2.57 will be applied across all Levels in the Pay Matrices. After taking into account the DA at prevailing rate, the salary/pension of all government employees/pensioners will be raised by at least 14.29 % as on 01.01.2016.

5. Rate of increment has been retained at 3 %. This will benefit the employees in future on account of higher basic pay as the annual increments that they earn in future will be 2.57 times than at present.

6. The Cabinet approved further improvements in the Defence Pay Matrix by enhancing Index of Rationalisation for Level 13A (Brigadier) and providing for additional stages in Level 12A (Lieutenant Colonel), 13 (Colonel) and 13A (Brigadier) in order to bring parity with Combined Armed Police Forces (CAPF) counterparts at the maximum of the respective Levels.

7. Some other decisions impacting the employees including Defence & Combined Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel include :

· Gratuity ceiling enhanced from Rs. 10 to 20 lakh. The ceiling on gratuity will increase by 25 % whenever DA rises by 50 %.
· A common regime for payment of Ex-gratia lump sum compensation for civil and defence forces personnel payable to Next of Kin with the existing rates enhanced from Rs. 10-20 lakh to 25-45 lakh for different categories.
· Rates of Military Service Pay revised from Rs. 1000, 2000, 4200 & 6000 to 3600, 5200, 10800 & 15500 respectively for various categories of Defence Forces personnel.
· Terminal gratuity equivalent of 10.5 months of reckonable emoluments for Short Service Commissioned Officers who will be allowed to exit Armed Forces any time between 7 and 10 years of service.
· Hospital Leave, Special Disability Leave and Sick Leave subsumed into a composite new Leave named ‘Work Related Illness and Injury Leave’ (WRIIL). Full pay and allowances will be granted to all employees during the entire period of hospitalization on account of WRIIL.

8. The Cabinet also approved the recommendation of the Commission to enhance the ceiling of House Building Advance from Rs. 7.50 lakh to 25 lakh. In order to ensure that no hardship is caused to employees, four interest free advances namely Advances for Medical Treatment, TA on tour/transfer, TA for family of deceased employees and LTC have been retained. All other interest free advances have been abolished.

9. The Cabinet also decided not to accept the steep hike in monthly contribution towards Central Government Employees Group Insurance Scheme (CGEGIS) recommended by the Commission. The existing rates of monthly contribution will continue. This will increase the take home salary of employees at lower levels by Rs. 1470. However, considering the need for social security of employees, the Cabinet has asked Ministry of Finance to work out a customized group insurance scheme for Central Government Employees with low premium and high risk cover.

10. The general recommendations of the Commission on pension and related benefits have been approved by the Cabinet. Both the options recommended by the Commission as regards pension revision have been accepted subject to feasibility of their implementation. Revision of pension using the second option based on fitment factor of 2.57 shall be implemented immediately. A Committee is being constituted to address the implementation issues anticipated in the first formulation. The first formulation may be made applicable if its implementation is found feasible after examination by proposed Committee which is to submit its Report within 4 months.

11. The Commission examined a total of 196 existing Allowances and, by way of rationalization, recommended abolition of 51 Allowances and subsuming of 37 Allowances. Given the significant changes in the existing provisions for Allowances which may have wide ranging implications, the Cabinet decided to constitute a Committee headed by Finance Secretary for further examination of the recommendations of 7th CPC on Allowances. The Committee will complete its work in a time bound manner and submit its reports within a period of 4 months. Till a final decision, all existing Allowances will continue to be paid at the existing rates.

12. The Cabinet also decided to constitute two separate Committees (i) to suggest measures for streamlining the implementation of National Pension System (NPS) and (ii) to look into anomalies likely to arise out of implementation of the Commission’s Report.

13. Apart from the pay, pension and other recommendations approved by the Cabinet, it was decided that the concerned Ministries may examine the issues that are administrative in nature, individual post/ cadre specific and issues in which the Commission has not been able to arrive at a consensus.

14. As estimated by the 7th CPC, the additional financial impact on account of implementation of all its recommendations in 2016-17 will be Rs. 1,02,100 crore. There will be an additional implication of Rs. 12,133 crore on account of payments of arrears of pay and pension for two months of 2015-16.

Source: PIB News

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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

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 NJCA 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.

Members of the Staff side of the National Joint Council (JCM), who attended the meeting with JS (IC) held on 19.02.2016 -7th Central Pay Commission
S.No Name (S/Shri)
1. Shiva Gopal Mishra
2. M.Raghavaiah
3. N.Kanniah
4. Guman Singh
5. K.K.N.Kutty
6. C.Srikumar
7. S.N.Pathak
8. Ashok Singh
9. R.N.Prashar
10. M.S. Raja
11. Giri Raj singh
12. Satish Chander
13. R.Srinivasan

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Comments of the Ministries/Departments on Recommendations of 7th Central Pay Commission-Request to Expedite

F No.30-1/2016-IC
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Expenditure

Implementation Cell (7th CPC)
Dated: 15th February, 2016

OFFICE MEMORANDUM

Subject: Comments of the Ministries/Departments on Recommendations of 7th Central Pay Commission – Request to Expedite – regarding.

All the Ministries/Departments, vide the D.O.No.1-4/2015-EIII.A dated 21.11.2015 from Joint Secretary (Pers), Department of Expenditure were requested to formulate their views/comments on the issues and the posts/services under them with reference to the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission and forward it to the Department of Expenditure within a period of three weeks.

2. The action involved on part of the administrative Ministries/Departments was also discussed, in detail, in the meeting with the Nodal Officers on 02.02.2016 and all the Nodal Officers were requested to furnish their comments in the ‘prescribed proforma’ circulated in the meeting, along with soft copy to the ‘jsic-cpc@nic.in within two weeks i.e. by 17.02.2016. The responses received so far are not satisfactory and comments of the most the Ministries/Departments are still awaited.

3. The Implementation Cell which is working as the secretariat of the Empowered Committee of Secretaries (E-CoS) has been asked to furnish considered views of the Ministries/Departments on the recommendations of the 7th CPC.

4. In view of the above, the comments of the Ministries/Departments may be furnished to the Implementation Cell. Department of Expenditure, immediately.

This may be treated as most urgent.

sd/-
(R.K.Chaturvedi)
Joint Secretary (IC)

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Nominatin of Nodal Officers including the major ministries like Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Ministry of Railways…the complete list of Officer’s Name, Address and Contact details are given below…

Source: www.finmin.nic.in

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Brief of the NJCA meeting held on 19.02.2016 with the Convener, Implementation Cell, Ministry of Finance

NJCA
NATIONAL JOINT COUNCIL OF ACTION,
4, STATE ENTRY ROAD, NEW DELHI-110055

No.NJCA/2016

Dated: 19.02.2016

Dear Comrades,

Sub: Brief of the NJCA meeting held on 19.02.2016 with the Convener, Implementation Cell, Ministry of Finance (Government of India), reg. 7th CPC recommendations and Charter of Demands of the NJCA

A meeting of the NJCA held today with the Convener, Implementation Cell, Ministry of Finance, Shri R.K. Chaturvedi, wherein we discussed and emphasized on all the 26-point Charter of Demands of the NJCA send to the Cabinet Secretary on 10.12.2015.

We agitated the issues of NPS, Minimum Wage, Multiplying Factor, deduction of HRA and all other important issues.

The Convener, Implementation Cell, Shri Chaturvedi, after hearing everybody, said that, he would put-up the issues to the Cabinet Secretary, and hopefully a meeting of the JCA would be held with the Cabinet Secretary and the Empowered Committee shortly within 15 days.

Let us not leave any stone unturned for preparations of the strike.

With Best Wishes!

Comradely yours,
sd/-
(Shiva Gopal Shrma)
Secretary (Staff Side) NC/JCM
&
Convener

Source: NC JCM Website

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