Report of 7th CPC in 18 months, Wage Revision w.e.f.
01.01.2014 & in every 5 years, Merger of 100% DA in Basic Pay,
Interim Relief for 7th CPC, Settlement of all Anomalies of 6th CPC, GDS
in 7th CPC, Amendment in 7th CPC term of reference, Privatization,
Outsourcing, Scrap PFRDA, Ceiling on Compassionate appointments, NAC
issues etc: Record Note of meeting by DoPT
RECORD NOTE OF THE MEETING HELD ON 25TH FEBRUARY, 2015
A
meeting was held on 25th February, 2015 in Conference Room No.190,
North Block, New Delhi with the representatives of the Staff Side under
the Chairmanship of Secretary (Personnel). A list of participants who
attended the meeting is annexed.
2.At the outset, the
Chairman welcomed the representatives of the Staff Side and Official
Side and expressed his firm belief and conviction that all the
issues/demands can be resolved through the consultative process. He also
indicated that the next (47th) meeting of the National Council (JCM) is
likely to be scheduled soon under the Chairmanship of Cabinet
Secretary. Thereafter, the Chairman invited the Leader and Secretary of
Staff Side for their opening remarks.
3. Shri M. Raghaviah,
Leader of the Staff Side welcomed the new Chairman. He thanked the
Chairman and conveyed the appreciation of the Staff Side for convening
the meeting. He mentioned that presently JCM is almost defunct which has
caused much anguish and frustration. He observed that the basic
framework for which Joint Consultative Machinery (JCM) has been set up
is defeated if meetings are not held and no result oriented interaction
takes place. He complained that even issues agreed upon do not result in
appropriate orders being issued by the Government and cogent replies
are not given in case of rejection of proposal.
4.While thanking
the Chairman, the Secretary Staff side, Shri Shiva Gopal Mishra, stated
the anguish of the Central Government Employees about communication
deadlock. He also mentioned that no dialogue policy of the Official Side
has left the Staff Side with no option except to agitate the issue. He
further mentioned that no date has been fixed for National Anomaly
Committee and that no meeting of the National Council has been fixed
till date.
All the above shows that the government does not want
to resolve the problems of the Central Government Employees in a
peaceful manner and this is the reason that all the constituents of
National Council JCM had decided for sustained struggle with massive
demonstration before the Parliament on 28th April. He further hoped
that, the Government will take a note and will resolve the issues raised
in their Declaration.
5.It was also pointed out by other Members
from Staff Side that many anomalies of 6th CPC have not been resolved
and since 7th CPC has been constituted, this has become an excuse to
keep the anomalies pending as they stand referred to the 7th CPC. I
confrontation is to be avoided, the legitimate demands should be settled
and action taken on agreed area like stepping up of pay in the matter
of pay fixation anomaly. They pointed out that since meetings of the JCM
are not held regularly, it gives the impression that the government is
not interested to settle the issues positively and the JCM is being
treated casually. This is a painful situation as even Departmental
Council meetings are not taking place which leads to plethora of
litigations. It was also brought out that a Memorandum was submitted
earlier by Staff Side for merger of DA and interim relief in view of the
erosion of the value of rupees and cost hike. Thereafter, the issues as
per the Charter of Demands were taken up for discussion.
1.Effect
wage revision of Central Government employees from 1.1.2014 accepting
the memorandum of the staff side JCM; ensure 5-year wage revision in
future; grant interim relief and merger of 100% of DA. Ensure submission
of the 7th CPC report with the stipulated time frame of 18 months;
include Grameen Dak Sewaks with the ambit of the 7th CPC. Settle all
anomalies of the 6th CPC.The Staff side stated that a
memorandum was submitted to 7th CPC for merger of DA and Interim Relief,
and the Commission has forwarded the same to the government. Now, the
government must take a decision on the memorandum itself or amend the
terms of reference to enable the CPC to make their recommendations on
the twin issues. Staff Side also pointed out that there was no laid down
periodicity rule setting up of Pay Commissions but by convention it has
been done after every ten years. The Staff Side stated that the wage
revision must be made every five years as is the case in the Banking and
Insurance Sector and other Public Sector Undertakings. With regard to
the 7th CPC recommendations, the staff side wanted these to be given
effect from 01.01.2014.
Regarding Grameen Dak Sewaks, the staff
side wanted the Government to amend the terms of reference of 7th CPC to
include Gramen Dak Sewaks as a category of employees as the Supreme
Court has declared them as holders of civil post.
It was also
submitted by the Staff Side that Interim relief is not part of the TOR
of CPC. However, it can be made as part of the TOR even now by the
government. Staff Side was of the view that the Interim Relief should
not be linked to the delay in the submission of the report by the CPC
but should be construed as necessary in view of the erosion of the real
value of wages on account of inflation. This was noted by the Chairman.
2.No privatization, PPP or FDI in Railways and Defence Establishments and no corporatization of postal services;The
Staff Side shown its concern on silence of the Government of India on
their demand for trans discussion on FDI and PPP. Staff Side vehemently
opposed 100% FDI in the Railways and 49% FDI in Defense Establishment.
The Staff was advised to meet and discuss the issue with the concerned
departments.
3. Non-resolving of the issues as referred by the Ministry of Railways to MoF(Exp.)With
regard to the demand for setting the anomalies of 6th CPC, the staff
side submitted that the Ministry of Railways had sent certain proposals
to the Department of Expenditure on which no action has been taken till
date. The Grade pay based MACP has created administrative and other
problems in Railways and they added that there was no cadre with the
grade pay of Rs.2000 in Railways. The staff side also pointed out that
the decision to hold the meeting of the NAC has not been honoured so
far. The Official Side stated that the proposals of the Ministry of
Railways will be sorted out between Railway Board and Department of
Expenditure. The Staff Side further stated that there are several items
in the NAC pending settlement. Some agenda items have not been subjected
to discussion even once. The Chairman agreed to convene the meeting of
NAC shortly.
4. No Ban on recruitment/creation of post.Regarding
ban on recruitment, the Official side stated that there is no ban on
recruitment. They further stated that with regard to ban on creation of
posts, exceptions are made for operational needs.
5. Scrap PFRDA Act and re-introduce the defined benefit statutory pension scheme.The
Staff Side submitted that the Supreme Court had declared pension as one
of the fundamental rights. The Government should, therefore, retrace
from its avowed position, which is detrimental to the interest of the
employees and ensure that the employees recruited after 1.1.2004 is
covered by the existing statutory defined benefit scheme and rescind the
PFRDA Act.The recent decision of the Cabinet to allow FDI in pension
fund operations has made the real intent of the PFRDA Act unambiguously
clear. The FDI will facilitate the mutual fund operators to invest the
funds outside India. It is clear that the decision behind the
contributory pension scheme was the pressure imposed on Government and
taken without consulting Staff Side and therefore it is to be opposed at
all cost and with vehemence. The Govt. should not go ahead with its
intention of induction of FDI in pension fund companies. The Staff Side
demanded to (i) restore the old pension scheme. (ii) abolish PFRDA and
amend the New Pension Scheme. The proposal from the Ministry of Railways
regarding replacement of National Pension scheme (NPS) with Old Pension
Scheme was sent to Ministry of Finance on 29.0.2014, which needs to be
agreed to. The Department of Financial Services gave details on the
scheme, asserting the comparative benefits of the contributory pension
scheme, Reacting the presentation, the staff side requested that
official side to make the contributory pension scheme optional and the
employees might opt for the same if the new scheme is beneficial as
presented by the official side. It was decided that the staff side will
discuss the issue with the Department of Financial Services further.
6.No
outsourcing; contractorisation, privatization of governmental
functions; withdraw the proposed move to close down the Printing
Presses; the publication, form store and stationery departments and
Medical Stores Depots; regularize the existing daily rated/casual and
contract workers and absorption of trained apprentices;Staff
Side demanded that due to the ban on creation of posts and recruitment
of personnel continuing for a very long period, there was consequent
strain on the existing workers and many Departmental heads had to
recruit personnel on daily rated basis or as casual workers. Thus,
almost 25% of the present work force in Governmental organizations are
casual workers deployed to do the permanent and perennial nature of
jobs, contrary to the prohibition of such unfair labour practices by the
law of the land. In fifties and sixties, even the casual workers who
had been employed to do the casual and non perennial jobs used to get
priority for regular employment as and when vacancy for such permanent
recruitment arises. Thousands of persons are now recruited as casual
workers and kept as such for years together. As per information now made
available on the floor of the Parliament, the number of contract
workers engaged by various public sector undertakings and Governmental
organizations is very large. They are paid pittance of a salary with no
benefits like provident fund, DA and other compensatory allowances etc.
In order to ensure that they do not get the benefit of regularization,
these workers are technically discharged for a few days to be employed
afresh again. The modus operandi differs from one department to another.
Staff
Side demanded that privatization and corporatization must not be
allowed. It was informed by official side that the meeting in the
Departments of (Railways & Postal) have taken place in this matter
and dialogue is continuing.
Regarding Printing Press,
representative of Ministry of Urban Development stated that it was
looking into it in a holistic manner and no final decision has yet been
taken on privatization of printing presses.
The Ministry of
Health representative said that there was no plans to close the Medical
Stores Depots. A Society was being floated for better supplies of
medicines. It was decided that Staff Side will have a meeting with
Ministry of Health & Family Welfare/Ministry of Urban Development
separately.
7.Revive the JCM functioning at all levels as
an effective negotiating forum for settlement of the demands of the
Central Government Employees (CGEs).This issues was not discussed.
8.Remove the arbitrary ceiling on compassionate appointments.The
Staff Side has submitted that on the plea of a Supreme Court directive,
Government introduced a 5% ceiling on the compassionate appointments.
When the matter was taken up by the Staff side in the National Council
the Govt. was not able to produce any such direction of the Supreme
Court. Despite that, the official side refused to withdraw the said
instructions limiting the appointments to 5% of the available vacancies.
In one of the National Council meetings, presided over by the Cabinet
Secretary solemn assurance was given to the Staff Side that the issue
will be revisited in the light of the discussion, but nothing happened
thereafter.It is pertinent to mention in this connection that the
compassionate appointments in the Railways continue to be operated
without any such ceiling. In the Department of Posts hundreds of
candidates selected by Selection Committee were denied jobs. Some
candidates approached the Court and obtained favorable order. But the
Court detective was made applicable to only those who approached the
Court. Such an assurance is being breached by the provisions of limiting
such appointments to 5% of vacancies therefore must be done away with.
It was agreed that DoPT will revisit the issue.
9.Other issues were deferred for next meeting.10.
It was agreed that the pending issues on the National Anomaly Committee
would also be discussed further. In the case of MACP issues, Ministry
of Railways would be requested to respond to the same in consultation
with DoPT and Department of Expenditure. As regards, the issue relating
to stepping up of pay Department of Expenditure would be requested to
respond to the issue.11.Staff Side Members from the Ministry of Defence flagged the following issues for reconsideration by DoPT:-
(i)
As per provisions of CCS(RP) Rules, 2008, merger of unskilled and
Semi-skilled in the Workshop Staff has taken effect from 01.01.2006.
Accordingly, as per DoPT guidelines, ACP granted to the labourers
(Unskilled and Semi-skilled) of Ministry of Defence may be reviewed, for
which an exemption of trade test is required. The MoD recommended the
case of DoPT for their approval, however, DoPT has rejected the case on
the plea that the ACP, already granted, need not be reviewed since
merger of the Unskilled and Semi-skilled has taken place from
01.09.2008.
(ii) Defence Civilian Employees are always paid a
higher rate of Risk Allowance when compared to other Central Government
Employees since they are working in highly hazardous and risky jobs.
Risk Allowance rate of Defence Civilian Employees may be revised to 6th
CPC pay scales.
(iii) CAT, Principal Bench and also Supreme Court
have ruled that Night Duty Allowance of Defence Civilian Employees may
be revised in 6th CPC pay scales. However, judgments are not
implemented.
ANNEXURE
List of Participants in the Meeting held on 25.02.2015 at 2.30 P.M. in Room No.190, North Block
CHAIRPERSON
Shri Sanjay Kothari
Secretary (Personnel)
| OFFICIAL SIDE | STAFF SIDE |
Shri A.G. Mathew, JS(Pers)
Department of Expenditure | Shri M. Raghavaiah, Leader |
Ms Snehlata Shrivastava, Addl.
Secy, D/o Financial Services | Shri S.G. Mishra, Secretary |
| Shri Neeraj Mandloi, JS(UD) | Shri Rakhal Das Gupta, Member |
| M. Akhtar, Add. Member, Railway Board | Shri Guman Singh, Member |
Shri N.S. Kang. AS&DG,CGHS
Ministry of Health & FW | Shri C. Srikumar, Member |
Shri Dheeraj Kumar, JS,
Ministry of Labour & Employment | Shri K.K.N. Kutty, Member |
Shri Sharda Prasad, Dy. Secy.
Department of Defence Production | Shri Ch. Sankara Rao, Member |
Shri Anju Nigam,DDG(SR&M)
D/o Posts | Shri R.P. Bhatnagar, Member |
| Madhavi Das, ED, PFRDA | Shri R. Srinivasan, Member |
| | Shri J.R. Bhosle, Member |
| | Shri M.S.Raja, Member |
| | Shri M.Krishnan, Member |
Source: www.persmin.nic.in
[http://ccis.nic.in/WriteReadData/CircularPortal/D2/D02est/Meeting-25022015.pdf]
