pay

Incentive increments to the sportspersons for outstanding sports achievements

2010-05-10T00:43:00.000-07:00

No.61212008-Pay-1

Ministry of Personnel, Public

Grievances and Pensions

Department of Personnel and Training

New Delhi the 61h May 201 0

OFFICE MEMORANDUM

Subject:: Incentive increments to the sportspersons for outstanding sports achievements at National and International levels.

Reference is invited to this Department’s OM of even umber dated 6th Aguest 2008 and subsequent reminders dated 3rd October, 2008, 12 th December,2008, 3rd September,2009 22 nd October,2009 and on 181h December,2009 hereby it has been requested to furnish views regarding the quantum of lump-sum incentives to be granted to sportspersons who win a Gold, Silver or Bronze medal in the Nationalllnternational Tournaments. A copy of the OM dated 26Ih August, 2008 has been uploaded on the DOPT’s website.

2. All the MinistrieslDepartments are again requested to expedite the matter and furnish their considered views by 31’’ May 2010 failing which it will be presumed that the MinistrylDepartment has no comments to furnish.

The Indian government is finally going the corporate way

2010-05-10T00:41:00.000-07:00

The Indian government is finally going the corporate way. The stage has been set for introducing performance-linked payouts which may force over five million central government employees to deliver their best.

What may make even corporate executives envious of the new bonanza for central government employees, particularly of the brass, is the proposal of a 20% hike for the best performers over and above the raise that they had received after the sixth Pay Commission’s recommendations two years ago.

Yet for the babus, it won’t be a cakewalk either, as the formula of assessing the government employees as proposed by performance management division under the cabinet secretariat, has ruled out paying even a penny to an official if his ministry scores 70 or below in a scale of 100.

But a secretary of a high performing ministry which meets 100% target will be eligible to receive Rs 2.4 lakh extra per year if the cabinet secretariat’s proposal of a 20% performance-linked payout is endorsed by the government, according to an official in cabinet secretariat.

The first round of assessment, initially for three months from January to March 2010, is over and three out of 59 central government departments have got a 100% score. There is a strong possibility that a large number of government employees would receive an extra pay once the new formula is adopted.

"We are extending the performance monitoring and evaluation system to 62 departments from the current fiscal. According to our system, a department sets a target, fixes the weightages of each target, and if it succeeds meeting all its targets, it gets a score of 100. Now, we are proposing that if a department meets all its targets, the head of the department would be given a performance bonus of 20% or more of his basic salary. And other employees too will get such bonuses,” said an official in performance management division.

He further says how the government has failed to implement performance-linked incentives for its employees for the last 20 years though such recommendations were mooted by successive pay commissions including the more recent Sixth Pay Commission.

Several countries such as Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Netherlands, Denmark, UK, US and Finland have moved away from the traditional government administrative model to a management model under which officers act like corporate managers as they get greater operational freedom, but are held accountable for results. In fact, New Zealand is considered to be the leader of the pack where performance of government agencies are weighed in by setting targets and adopting regular evaluations.

Though there were several attempts in India too to bring in performance management in an institutionalised way, the process got kickstarted only after World Bank’s senior economist Prajapati Trivedi was appointed as secretary to the government of India with the responsibility for performance management early last year. Dr Trivedi, along with cabinet secretary KM Chandrasekhar, introduced a tool called Results Framework Document (RFD) which will set targets for each ministry and will finally be the basis for yearly evaluation.

Dr SP Parashar, a former director of IIM Indore, says that the government had in the past too dealt with the subject by introducing themes such as Programming, Planning, Budgeting (PPB), Zero Base Budgeting (ZBB), and Outcome Budgeting (OB), to name a few. “You might be wondering what happened to them? They went with their champions. Lets hope that Results Framework Document (RFD) stays. The real challenge and test of any change program in our kind of democracies is its continuity...” he says.

He agrees that at concept level, Results Framework Document captures international best practices in respect of government performance management, but it misses the heart of good performance being implemented in the corporate world. “It is fixing individual responsibility in addition to departmental responsibility. The Results Framework Document as currently devised and adopted uses departmental responsibility and score as proxy for individual responsibility and score,” he says.

Yet, with 62 government ministries and departments on board with a few exceptions like PMO, home and defence, the performance of central ministries is under close watch. Though SundayET has learnt that only three ministries met 100% targets and some could not even meet 50%, it remains to be seen when and how the government makes those report cards public.

The Finance Ministry regarding granting Grade Pay Rs.4200 to MCM

2010-05-08T01:31:00.000-07:00

The sources close to the South Block told that the proposal approved by the Finance Ministry (Department of Expenditure) regarding granting Grade Pay Rs.4200 to MCM in Ministry of Defence, facing a surprising twist in its non ending long journey.

It has been told that all the three federations (AIDEF, INDWF, and BPMS) are opposing this proposal as it was not the same as they accepted in Fast Track Committee. Hence it is believed that the Defence Ministry now sent the file back to MOF for the approval of the proposal accepted in Fast Track Committee.

In the old proposal it has been recommended that there will be 4 Grade Structure, in which Skilled-45%, Highly Skilled II-20.5%, Highly Skilled I-20.5%

Rajya Sabha is planning to give deemed deputation to Prasar Bharati employees

2010-05-08T01:30:00.000-07:00

Government informed Rajya Sabha that it is planning to give Prasar Bharati employees, who had joined the public broadcaster till October 5, 2007, the status of being on deemed deputation.

Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting C M Jatua, in a written reply to a question, said, "government has proposed to amend Section 11 of Prasar Bharati Act based on recommendations of the GoM dated October 5, 2007 and September 26, 2008".

Section 11 of Prasar Bharati Act recommends that the right of taking a decision whether they want to be government employees or public broadcaster’s employees, should rest with the employees of Prasar Bharati.

When Prasar Bharati was established as an autonomous corporation by an Act of Parliament, it was entrusted with the functions discharged by All India Radio and Doordarshan.

Around 40,000 odd DD and AIR employees had joined it on deemed deputation, but were not getting any facilities meant for Central Government employees.
After a prolonged agitation by workers, the GoM had recommended in September 2008 that employees recruited upto October 5, 2007 would continue to be government servants on deemed deputation to Prasar Bharati till retirement and will enjoy all facilities at par with Central Government employees.

It had further said that employees recruited after October 5, 2007 will be Prasar Bharati employees.

Accordingly, the government is in the process of amending Section 11 of the Act to implement the GoM’s decision.

The minister said the government has referred to the reconstituted Group of Ministers (GoM) the issue of whether a Parliamentary committee of Prasar Bharati should be constituted as per provisions of Prasar Bharati Act.
"The issue whether a Parliamentary committee is to be constituted as per Section 13 of Prasar Bharati Act 1990 or Section 13 of the Act is to be deleted, has been referred to the GoM, which has been reconstituted on February 10, 2010 for taking a view," he said.

The NPS has not generated enough interest among the masses

2010-05-08T01:28:00.000-07:00

Despite government initiatives, the NPS has not generated enough interest among the masses. What needs to be done to prop up this excellent scheme?

Investors have not responded with much enthusiasm to the ‘Swavalamban’ initiative extended by the government under which it will contribute Rs1,000 per year (for a period of four years) to every New Pension Scheme (NPS) account opened this year with at least a matching contribution from the subscriber. Citizens in the non-government segment continue to abstain from investing in the NPS. The number of non-government subscribers to NPS registered as of 30 April 2010 has touched 5,532. Although the figure is more than double that of October 2009 when non-government subscribers were 2,321, the absolute numbers are still small.

The total central government employees registered under the NPS have gone up to 6,09,376 from 5,38,276 in October last year. However, there has been a large increase in numbers from among the state government employees during the same period. The number of subscribers under this category rose to 2,55,903 from the earlier 1,10,024.

An officer from one of the point of presence service providers (PoP-SP) pointed out that there have been no significant additions since the budget announcement. He said, “The momentum has not picked up much despite various initiatives from the government and banks. We have been told that this product should be bought and not sold. So we are not expected to advise customers in any way. The policy is that we wait for the customers to approach us. We are fully equipped and ready to accept subscriptions in the NPS.”

Incidentally, this PoP-SP has commissioned more than 300 of its branches to provide NPS registration facilities to the subscribers. Several other banks have also mobilised a chunk of personnel and designated a part of their infrastructure for catering to the NPS subscriptions. Another PoP service provider confirmed, “Although there is an improvement in the NPS accounts, it is not as much as what was expected.”

Commenting on what needs to be done to popularise the scheme, the official stated, “We need to approach private sector companies and talk to employees about the benefits of the scheme. The government could also probably offer a minimum dividend or guarantee as people may be worried about what they will end up with after so many years. Things will change if the scheme assures a minimum return.”
Speaking about the possible actions being considered to promote the scheme, an official from the Pension Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) said, “The Swavalamban initiative has seen a slow and steady rise from the earlier rate of enrolment. The first phase of implementation is almost over. We are now looking at various promotional and monetary incentives for enrolment. We are considering media campaigns and strengthening the regulatory mechanism through monitoring the PoPs more closely and how to make them promote the scheme better.”

The still lukewarm response to the NPS is unfortunate considering that it is a product that is actually tailor-made for the requirements of the masses. It is among the least expensive balanced investment products in the market and the cheapest pension product in the offing, which would make a huge difference to long-term wealth.

Lack of confidence in the product is also a mitigating factor. Investors are wary about how much they will end up with after the contribution period. Investors should be advised by the PoPs regarding the portfolio allocation to debt and equity before investing. Awareness among the masses still remains a concern for the pension regulator and hence, its plans to promote the scheme need to take shape for the NPS to achieve its true potential.

Model Recruitment Rules for Group 'C' posts in Pay

2010-05-04T23:46:00.000-07:00

No.AB-140171612009-Estl (RR)
Government of India
Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances 8 Pensions
Department of Personnel 8 Training
New Delhi, dated the 301h April 2010
OFFICE MEMORANDUM
Subject:- Model Recruitment Rules for Group ’C’ posts in Pay
Band-I, with Grade Pay of Rs.1800/- (pre-revised Group
’D’ posts)

The 6th CPC recommended that all Group ’D’ posts in the
Government will stand upgraded to Group ’C’, Pay Band-I with Grade Pay of Rs.1800, along with the incumbents (after suitable training , wherever required). The other recommendations of the Commission, in this regard
include:
(i) There will be no further recruitment in Group ’D’.
(ii) The existing Group ’D’ posts will be placed in Group
’C’ Pay Band-I with Grade Pay of Rs.1800.
(iii) The minimum qualification for appointment to this
level will be either loth pass or IT1 equivalent
(iv) Multi- skilling, with one employee performing jobs
hitherto performed by different Group ’D’
employees.
(v) Common Designation for these posts,
2. Model Recruitment Rules (Annex-I) have been framed keeping in
view the recommendations of the Pay Commission.
All the Ministriesl
Departments are requested to amend the Recruitment Rules for the
erstwhile Group’ D’ posts as per the Model RRs and the recommendations
of the Pay Commission.
3. Powers for framing1 amendment of RRs for Group ’C’ posts have ,
already been delegated to Ministriesl Departments. Therefore the RRs
may be framed accordingly, in consultation with Ministry of Law without
further reference to this Department. This Department needs to be
consulted only if any deviations from the model RRs are proposed.
4. Ministries1 Departments may adopt the designation of MULTITASKING
STAFF for some common categories of posts in the secretariat
offices. Annex-ll indicates the categories of erstwhile Group ’D’ posts
which may be given this designation and illustrative list of duties attached
to these posts. For other categories of posts, Ministries1 Departments may
adopt single designation for posts whose duties are similar in nature and
where the officials can easily be switched from one task to another. In all
cases it may be ensured that:
a) The posts are classified as Group ’C’
b) The posts are placed in Pay Band-I with Grade Pay
of Rs.1800.
c) The minimum qualification for appointment is
prescribed as loth passs. Where technical
qualifications are considered necessary, IT1 in the
relevant subject may be prescribed as the minimum
qualification.
5. Ministry of Home affairs etc. are requested to bring the contents of
this 0.M to the notice of all their Attached1 Subordinate Offices. The
autonomous1 statutory bodies may adopt the same with the approval of
the competent authority as per their rules1 statutes.
6. Hindi version follows.
Deputy Secretary

Assam Cabinet cleared the way for revision of the pay scales of the teachers

2010-05-04T23:45:00.000-07:00

The State Cabinet cleared the way for revision of the pay scales of the teachers of universities, colleges, engineering colleges and polytechnics, while, the issue of revision of the pay scales of the teaching staff of the medical colleges will be finalized in the next meeting of the Cabinet.

Official sources said that the State Cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi this evening, cleared the proposal for payment of the new UGC and AICTE pay scales to the teachers of the universities, colleges, engineering colleges and polytechnics. Sources said that provisions have been made in the State Budget for the current year for revision of pay scales.

Sources said that the Cabinet discussed the need for revision of the pay scales of the employees of the state public sector undertakings and directed the Personnel Department to examine the issue. Sources said that the Government has decided to divide the state PSUs into three categories - profit making, marginal and loss making. The employees of the profit making PSUs would get revised pay as per the sixth pay commission recommendations, while, the Personnel Department would examine the matter of pay revision of the employees of the other two categories of the PSUs.

Sources said that the Cabinet decided to bifurcate the Public Works Department and it would now have two commissioners. The PWD will now be bifurcated into PWD (Roads) and PWD (National Highway and Building). The Cabinet further decided to form a high power monitoring committee to ensure speedy implementation of the schemes announced in the State budget. Sources said that the Cabinet further said that the heads of the departments would be given special powers to ensure speedy implementation of the schemes.

Source : The Assam Tribune.

Suburban train services in Mumbai limped back to normalcy

2010-05-04T23:43:00.000-07:00

Suburban train services in Mumbai limped back to normalcy this evening after motormen of both the Western and Central Railways called off a hunger strike that they began yesterday morning to press their demand for higher pay and allowances.
The agitation had crippled the suburban railway system in the metropolis that carries about 6.9 million passengers a day. The Railways were forced to cancel most of their 3300-odd suburban services today.

The strike was called off by the motormen after talks between their leaders and Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil, who assured them that the State Government would take up their demands with the Ministry of Railways and the Central Government.

He told them that he would also request the Railways to withdraw the disciplinary action agaist the striking employees and assured them that the State Government would withdraw action initiated against them.

Mr Patil told mediapersons later he had also impressed upon them the need to withdraw their agitation immediately in view of the great incovenience caused to the travelling public.

Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Ashok Chavan had held a meeting with some of his colleagues and top officials of the Railways, the police and the transport department on ways of handling the situation and minimising the difficulties caused to commuters.

There was a move to use the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) against the striking employees, but the Chief Minister had said that it would be done only as a last resort. Mr Patil said ESMA was not used because the State Government was in talks with the representatives of the motormen.

Mr Chavan told journalists that 4200 buses were pressed into service in the city to provide some relief to commuters. He said traffic on the suburban system had fallen to 20 per cent of normal numbers and attendance in the State Government Secretariat was in the range of 10-15 per cent today.

"Generally, life in the city was paralysed," Mr Chavan said. He said he had taken up the matter with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh while in Delhi yesterday and had also discussed the issue with Railways Minister Mamta Banerjee, who was away in West Bengal.

The issue was raised in the Lok Sabha by members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Left parties and many others, including Mr Sanjay Nirupam of the Congress. The Opposition said Ms Banerjee must make a statement on the issue.
In Delhi, Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrashekhar reviewed the situation at a meeting with Railway Board Chairman S S Khurana and other senior officials.

The Western Railway said it had made special arrangements to keep the local trains running though the number of services would be fewer and the travel time would be more than usual.

The Railway appealed to people in Mumbai to plan to travel by the suburban trains only if it is absolutely necessary. It said about 250 local services would run today, about 20 per cent of the normal number.

A statement from the Western Railway said that every 20 minutes there would be a train from Churchgate to Borivali and Virar, alternatively, stopping at all stations.

Similarly, every 40 minutes there will be a train from Virar and Borivali, alternatively, for Churchgate which will stop at all stations. There will be a few services originating from Andheri to Vasai Road and Bandra to Bhayander. These trains will be run from 05.00 hrs to 23.00 hrs and will take additional travel time.

On the fast corridor, about 110 additional train services will be run with 10 coaches each of long distance trains. These trains will be run between Churchgate- Virar, Mumbai Central - Virar and Dadar- Virar. These trains will halt at Dadar, Bandra, Andheri and Borivali and at all stations between Borivali and Virar. All suburban tickets and passes will be valid in these trains.

The authorities have also made arrangements for running additional buses from various stations like Churchgate, Dadar, Bandra, Andheri, Borivali and so on.
The Western Railway has set up a special helpline 10721 to provide information about the situation to members of the public.

The statement also appealed to the motormen to not resort to the hunger protest in the interest of the commuters.In Delhi, the Ministry of Railways said the motormen were demanding higher pay than recommended by the 6th Central Pay Commission and additional allowances which were not part of the recommendations of the Pay Commission.

An official press release said that some of their demands regarding national holidays and night duty allowances had already been met.

It pointed out that the Indian Railways had 1.4 million employees on their rolls and, traditionally, the grievances of all sections of staff are resolved through consultation with their recognised federations. The release said the agitation by the motormen was not supported by any of the recognised federations, unions and associations of the Railways.

According to the release, Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee had also met the representatives of the agitating motormen and it had been explained to them that their genuine grievances were being looked into.

It said the grievances of the motormen were also before the Regional Labour Commissioner, Mumbai and a conciliation meting between the management and the employees was held on April 29. The Regional Labour Commissioner has advised the motormen not to resort to their protest action and fixed the next conciliation meeting on May 12, it said.

The release said any precipitative action taken during the conciliatory proceedings was unlawful under the Industrial Disputes Act.

The release said that, despite appropriate action by the Railways, the motormen had resorted to unlawful action, which had resulted in the cancellation of many suburban trains and caused a lot of problems for commuters.

It said the General Managers of the Central and Western Railways had been asked to take all necessary steps to ensure that appropriate alternative arrangements were put in place in coordination with the State Government to cause minimum inconvenience to the travelling public. The Central Government was also being kept fully informed in the matter, the release added.

Manipur Chief Minister has reiterated the 6th Pay Commission

2010-04-24T00:11:00.000-07:00

Manipur Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh has reiterated that his government has no capacity to include arrears while recommending the 6th Pay Commission in the State due to lack of adequate financial resources.

Briefing the media soon after a State Cabinet meeting here on Thursday afternoon, Ibobi said that the Cabinet minutely discussed the demands of the striking employees with inputs from financial experts and thereafter decided to exclude the arrears. “We are not reluctant to award the employees’ demand,” he said. “So we once again appeal the employees to rethink and reconsider their steps and withdraw the strike,” he added.

Over 60,000 State government employees under the banner of the Joint Administrative Council of All Manipur Government Employees’ Organisation and All Manipur Trade Union Council are on a cease work strike since January 16 last demanding implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations in the State should also include payment of arrears.

The Chief Minister further explained that an additional amount of Rs 69.68 crore was required to meet the State’s monthly expenditure of Rs 292.28 crore against the monthly income of Rs 222.61 crore.

JAC Secretary Th Chandramani has, however, said that Chief Minister’s appeal failed to convince the striking employees. “He (Ibobi) has been saying this since the beginning of our strike,” Chandramani said when contacted over phone. “Why is he not ready to sit with us and discuss it (the issue). This hints of some hidden agenda of thegovernment,” he opined.

Indian Banks Association are likely to ink the final settlement

2010-04-24T00:08:00.000-07:00

Bank unions and the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) are likely to ink the final settlement of the industry-level wage revision on April 27 in Mumbai. The wage revision for the banking industry is due from November 2007.

The decks have been cleared for the final settlement after a delegation of the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), led by its convenor Mr C. H.Venkatachalam, met the Union Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, at North Block on Wednesday, sources privy to the developments said.

In November 2009, the UFBU and IBA had agreed for a 17.5 per cent increase in wages under the proposed ninth bipartite settlement, which would span five years until October 2012. It was also agreed to give both existing as well as certain retired employees another chance to opt for pension benefits.

As many as 7.75 lakh employees from 26 public sector, 12 private and eight foreign banks would benefit from the final wage settlement.

The annual wage bill for the public sector banks, including the State Bank of India Group, was Rs 27,500 crore for the year ended March 31, 2007. This ninth bipartite settlement would lead to an additional annual outgo of Rs 4,816 crore for the public sector banks and Rs 400 crore for private and foreign banks.

About 2.6 lakh existing (non SBI) employees are to get another chance to switch to pension from Provident Fund as a retirement benefit. Also, about 60,000 retired employees, who are PF optees, will now be given another chance to switch to pension benefits.

Public sector bank employees can currently avail themselves of only two retirement benefits - pension or provident fund and gratuity. In the eighth bipartite wage settlement, the bank unions had settled for 13.25 per cent hike.

The modalities for Housing Loan proposed by 6cpc are yet to be framed

2010-04-20T23:44:00.000-07:00

Even after two full years are over from the date when Government received the recommendations of Sixth Pay Commission, the modalities for Housing Loan proposed by 6cpc are yet to be framed. In the mean time Ministry of Urban development issued an interim order for grant of HBA after implementation of Sixth Pay Commission.

It could be seen that the maximum Housing loan that could be obtained after implementation of sixth pay commission report is only Rs.7.5 lakhs. We feel this would serve no purpose and Govt should come up with the new modalities for HBA as early as possible.

You might be aware of the recommendations of 6cpc in respect of Housing loan. As per 6cpc recommendations the existing system of lending directly by the government it to be dispensed with and nationalized banks would lend to government employees at a subsidized Interest rates.

This is the extract of 6cpc’s recommendations regarding HBA.

First round of negotiations between the agitating employees and Manipur govt

2010-04-19T00:27:00.000-07:00

First round of negotiations between the agitating employees and the Ministerial team constituted to iron out differences on the issue of 6th Pay Commission recommendations is likely to begin tomorrow afternoon, even as representatives of the employees are scheduled to meet the Governor on the same issue

According to a senior Minister in the SPF coalition, ahead of the negotiations with the agitating State Government employees, the Ministerial team specifically formed to chalk out means for ending the present administrative crisis, would discuss relevant issues under the chairmanship of Th Debendra.

Th Debendra, who holds the Revenue, Forest, Law and Legislative Affairs portfolios along with Minister members of the team and top ranked officials are supposed to meet before holding talks with the employees’ representatives.

the senior Minister further said that the meeting between the Ministerial team and Government officials would be followed by a formal invitation to the JAC of AMGEO and AMTUC spearheading the cease-work strike.

The Minister also expressed hope that the proposed talks would end on a positive note that could pave the way for resolving the over three month long agitation.

Meanwhile, welcoming the Government’s move of setting up the Ministerial team to hold negotiations with the agitating employees, publicity secretary of the employees’ JAC Priyobratta expressed that the employees are keen to perform normal duty rather than waste time by resorting to agitation.

strongly advocating that only through negotiations could all outstanding differences be addressed, he also confided that representatives of Manipur secretariat Services Association, JAC, pensioners and teachers’ body would meet the Governor at 11.30 am tomorrow during which a detail account of the employees’ demands would be placed before Gurbachan Jagat.

Mention may be made that after Secretariat employees joined the agitation some days back the State administration had been crippled to a significant extent.

The modalities for Housing Loan proposed by 6cpc are yet to be framed

2010-04-17T01:01:00.000-07:00

This is the extract of 6cpc’s recommendations regarding HBA.

All constituents of UFBU are striving to reach the settlement on pension

2010-04-17T00:56:00.000-07:00

Circular No.11/V/2010
April 15, 2010
To:
ALL UNITS / STATE COMMITTEES
Comrades,

MOU dated 27.11.2009
Developments in small committee meetings

Ever since we signed the MOU dated 27.11.2009 all constituents of UFBU are striving to reach the settlement on pension and revision of pay at the earliest.

However, the first destablising development came when IBA after MOU dated 27.11.2009 was signed on the basis of existing parameters of costing in the industry, brought SBI pension balancing, a factor which was not there in earlier two settlements and after SBI employees got 120 crores as compensation on the pension scheme introduced in Banks. IBA brought this after MOU keeping UFBU in dark till we signed MOU 27.11.2009 and they did not accept our legal demand to keep this amount of nearly 300 crores outside the load, without reducing the load factor of 17.5% to 16.5%.

But IBA using the pressure on the unions to expedite the settlement imposed the questionable addition to reduce our load factor.

Another destabilsing aspect took place amongst officers’ Associations when we met IBA Chairman to plead for higher starting basic and stagnation, it was decided by the unions that we will work out scale of pay adjusting incremental pattern to reach 15000 starting pay.

However AIBOC unilaterally met IBA and announced completion of small committee work and wanted us to agree to their scheme. We had prepared our chart at 15000 with suitable adjustments in incremental pattern and said that we would go with them on other matters if starting pay is agreed at 15000/- so as to reduce the difference with Govt. officers which have increased by leaps and bounds due to grade pay etc., after VI Pay Commission implementation.

AIBOC expressed its inability to go further and despite other small improvements, Junior officers are again left in the lurch. Without delinking Executives pay, we unnecessarily reduced their pay in the process sealing our prospects to improve our wages in future.

This policy of AIBOC to negotiate with IBA on separate lines has led us to difficulties. While AIBOC was always critising UFBU, they flouted 20+ demand of united UFBU to land us at 17.5%. Thereafter they revisited SBI demand to make it 16.5%. They wanted higher wage for officers but did not accept AIBOA’s proposal to place separate demands and to pursue the charter with IBA and Govt., separately. Instead they sat with UFBU till date of effect and merger points were decided and showed a picture as if they are not agreeing with 17.5% but eventually made it 16.5% in favour of SBI. Convenient stand was taken at every point of time to distribute the load on the basis of numbers without basic principles of fair loading principles to all sections.

Another sad feature of AIBOC negotiation is that while HRA we had differed with IBA costing excess nearly 50 crores, they have not even declared this publicly. Similarly after reducing starting pay to Rs.14500/- now AIBOC is complaining of relativity problem as workmen get special pay of Rs.1000/- wef 1.5.2010.

However more than anything above AIBOA is worried that IBA is adopting standards and methods questionable in nature to push higher level of recovery from the load factor and from individuals nor incumbent to pay the deficit on account of delayed option. Having extracted higher appropriation in respect of incremental cost sharing and deficit funding, IBA has so far denied normal feature of pension like DA neutralization, updation, anomaly rectification for the last10 years With further recovery for incremental cost for 276600 persons and deficit recovery, IBA has achieved higher cost of pension taking nearly 5% more than PF cost of 10% with which pension was exchanged in the beginning. Slowly pension is proving more costlier than the benefits especially after this settlement.

It is this trend of negative bargaining by IBA to pauperise the community that make us generally worried about the state of collective bargaining in the industry and the need for transparency to evolve demands below which the unions will not accept any settlement with Bankers.

With greetings
/R.J.SRIDHARAN/
GENERAL SECRETARY

PSEB ended their agitation against bifurcation of the body

2010-04-17T00:54:00.000-07:00

Employees of Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) ended their agitation against bifurcation of the body after Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal assured them that their interest will be protected.

"The chief minister has assured us that there will be no privatisation and the interest of employees will be taken care of," Manjit Chahal, spokesman of Joint Forum of PSEB employees’ bodies, said here.

"That is why we have decided not to extend our agitation and employees will join their duties tomorrow," he said.

Punjab government yesterday gave its nod for bifurcation of PSEB.

A group of employee leaders including Surinder Pehalwan representing Employees Federation met Badal this afternoon.

Chahal said that during the meeting, Badal "assured us that service norms involving pension, gratuity and leave encashment would be framed within ten days".

An April Fool prank allowances to please colleagues in central government offices

2010-04-15T00:15:00.000-07:00

Was it an April Fool prank or a case of an adventurous babu arbitrarily announcing increase in overtime allowances to please colleagues in central government offices?

The case in question is that of a “fake” order being circulated in these offices on increasing allowances on the basis of a circular issued by the finance ministry on April 1 last.

Although a high-level inquiry has been ordered by the finance ministry and the department of personnel and training (DoPT), no clue has yet been found on who was behind the mischief. The office memorandum number 1(4)/2010E-II dated 27/3/2010 was issued by the finance ministry with the signature of under secretary S Rajan Chandranaydu.

“The case is being probed by senior officials. But nothing as yet has been found,” a DoPT official said. “The possibility of it being an April Fool prank is also being looked into. But even in such a case, the guilty could face the music,” he said.

The official clarified that it had nothing to do with DoPT, which is the nodal department on such issues. “It pertains to the finance ministry and they are probing it,” he said.

The issue came to the notice of DoPT after enthusiastic central government officials started seeking details of the hiked overtime allowances, such as the date from which they would become operative. Acting swiftly, DoPT got in touch with the finance ministry, only to discover that the order was fake.

To set the record straight, DoPT issued a fresh office memorandum to clear doubts about the veracity of the order. “It is clarified that no such instruction has been issued by either DoPT or the finance ministry. The ministries and departments are advised not to take cognisance of the fake instructions being circulated in central government offices,” the office memorandum signed by DoPT director Simmi R Nakra said.

80 per cent of State Bank of India officers resigned from the membership

2010-04-15T00:11:00.000-07:00

Unhappy with the wage settlement, 80 per cent of State Bank of India (SBI) officers in the senior management grade have resigned from the membership of the officers’ association.

The finer details of the industrywide wage revision for bank employees have already been worked out and the agreement will be made official next week.

“There has been an exodus from the officers’ association from the Mumbai Corporate centre alone”, said an employee involved in the issue.

Referring to the dissatisfaction among officers, TN Goel, president of the All-India State Bank of India Officers’ Federation, said the basic issue with the decision for just a 17.5 per cent hike, which was making it difficult to structure the pay scales. Hence, various groups feel they are getting a raw deal. Specific issues regarding SBI staff and officers will be taken up after the industry-level pact is signed.

However, SBI officials who have resigned from the association are of the view that the wage negotiations are more focused on issues other than a decent wage package. Officers allege that the first priority of the present settlement is giving a second pension option to those who did not opt for the scheme in 1993.

The second priority of the settlement had been providing “stagnation increments” to officers in scale I to III, they said. The position in the SBI cadre increases in an ascending order from scale I to scale V. Scale IV and V comprise senior management.

“The stagnation benefit creates an anomalous situation whereby a person in a lower scale, who was either not found fit for promotion or did not opt for promotion, draws the same basic salary as a person who is shouldering higher responsibilities after being promoted to a higher scale. Moreover, the wage settlement does not extend the same benefit to scale IV or V officers, where stagnation is more than 12 years and is followed by frequent transfers”, they said.

“The most objectionable part of the settlement is that the representatives of the SBI officers’ association, rather than struggling for higher wages for members, have settled for less. This is because IBA had proposed pay scales of Rs 15,000-54000 as increase in basic salary across the board whereas the association settled for Rs 14,500-52,000”, said the officers.

GD Nadaf, general secretary, All India Bank Officers’ Association, said that from around two-and-a-half years of arrears, employees opting for the second pension scheme might have to forgo seven to eight months of arrears as contribution to the pension fund in lieu of the provident fund.

Modified Assured Career Progression Scheme for central government employees

2010-04-12T00:12:00.000-07:00

This is a classic example of how a clarification order could misinterpret the original order. As you all know, the office memorandum for implementation of Modified Assured Career Progression Scheme for central government employees was issued on 19.5.2009 by DOPT with effect from 1.9.2008.

In fact the said order is self contained one and there is very little scope for any confusion. However, while implementing the same administrative authorities attached to Customs and Central excise department had certain doubts, for which Ministry of Finance has issued a clarification order on 2.2.2010. The said clarification order dated 2.2.2010, attempts to clarify seven types of doubts raised. We provide here the issue involved relating to Point No: 3 of Clarification order dated 2.2.2010. While a clarification order ought to have been issued for correctly interpreting the original order, the clarification dated 2.2.2010, complicates the MACPS and in fact denies the very benefit provided under MACPS.
What clarification Order dated 2.2.2010 issued by MOF says:

It was sought to be clarified with MOF that whether a UDC who got earlier two promotions (to the grade of tax assistant & Inspector) after completion of 5 years of service is eligible for 3rd MACP (financial upgradation) after he completes 10 years of service in the grade of Inspector.

In respect of this question the MOF has clarified that in such circumstances 3rd MACP would be granted after completion of 30 years or whenever a person has spent 10 years continuously in the same grade pay whichever is later. Obviously, in this case the completion of 30 years would fall later when compared to completion of 10 years of service in the same grade/grade pay
What the Original OM dated 19.5.2009 for MACPS says:

The Original OM dated 19.5.2009, provides for three financial upgradations under the MACPS, counted from the direct entry grade on completion of 10, 20 and 30 years service respectively. In addition, financial Upgradation under the Scheme will be admissible whenever a person has spent 10 years continuously in the same grade-pay. It is apparent that there is no provision in the OM dated 19.5.2009, to the extent that one of the two conditions viz., 1. completion of 10, 20 and 30 years service and 2. completion of 10 years continuously in the same grade-pay, whichever falls later has to be applied whenever an employee crosses the milestone of 10, 20, or 30 years of service.
New condition not provided in Original Order introduced:

However, the clarification order dated 2.2.2010 brings this new term “whichever is later” for the first time into the picture, while there is no advocation for such a kind of procedure in the original MACPS order. This misinterpretation is proved to be very costly as per the clarification dated 2.2.2010, as whenever an employee is promoted to the next cadre within the period of 10 years service, say 5 years, he has to wait for his 2nd MACP till the completion of 20 years of service.
Why it’s proved to be costly for employees:

Take the case of another employee who gets his first promotion after completion of 18 years in same grade will be eligible for 2nd MACP only after completion of 10 years of service in the promoted grade/grade pay. So, he will be eligible for 2nd MACP only after completion of 28 years of Government service, since completion of 10 years of service in the same grade pay will only fall later than the completion of 20 years of service for getting 2nd MACP in his case. On the contrary, as per the original order dated 19.5.2009 for MACPS issued by DOPT he will be getting his 2nd MACP after completion of 20 years of govt service.
What does the Para 28 (i) of MACPS say:

The original MACP order very clearly advocates that if the first promotion is given say after completion of 8 years, 2nd MACP has to be granted after completion of 18 years not withstanding the fact that the regular service criteria for getting 2nd MACP is 20 years, since the said employee has completed 10 years of service in the same grade/grade pay. (please see the illustration given in Para 28 (i)).

We can say Ministry of Finance has got its wires crossed in this issue by mistaking the two types of conditions envisaged in the original MACPS issued by Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions (DOPT). In fact, the original MACPS order simplifies many issues by providing suitable flow diagrams. For instance, the illustration that we discussed in the previous para was well explained through the flow diagram (Please see Page No: 10 of annexure-1 to the Original MACPS order dated 19.5.2009 - Diagram under the heading Para 28 (i) & (ii). It could be seen that the clarification given under point no: 3 of the clarification order dated 2.2.2010, totally contradicts the Para 28 (i) of the original MACP order dated 19.5.2009 and the illustrative flow diagram given under Para 28 (i) and (ii).

We hope MOF should look into this aspect immediately as it’s very easier to sort out these sort of misinterpretations at an early stage.

Another round of wage negotiations between IBA and workmen’s unions

2010-04-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

Another round of wage negotiations between IBA and workmen’s unions has been held on 7th and 8th April, preceded by a meeting of the unions with Dr Khandelwal Committee, on Human Resource matters in Public
During the course of 2 days’ discussion on wage related matters the followings items were finalized :
HRA - Where quarters are provided recovery of rent will be 0.50% of first stage of scale of pay.
LFC - One more option to change block of years. For encashment, employee to be on leave for, at least, 1(one) day.
Travel by own car with permission of the bank.
Special Area Allowance - In line with Government of India Notification.
FPP - Area I Area II Area III Area IV
Clerk Rs.940/- Rs.930/- Rs.920/- Rs.915/-
Sub Staff Rs.470/- Rs.465/- Rs.460/- Rs.460/-
At places where
accommodation is provided by the bank : Rs 860 for clerks and Rs 430 for sub. staff and increment component in all cases Rs.800/- for clerk and Rs.400/- for sub staff.
Halting Allowance - Area I & II Area III Area IV
Clerk Rs 500/- per diem Rs 375/-per diem Rs. 300/- per diem
Sub. Staff Rs 375/- per diem Rs 250/- per diem Rs. 185/- per diem
PQP/Graduation Pay - Rs.250/- after 1 yr, Rs.490/- after 2 yrs., Rs.740/- after 3 yrs., Rs.990/- after 4 yrs.,
Rs.1230/- after 5 yrs, all per month.
Implementation - Items Date of effect
Scale of pay, Stagnation increment, DA, 1st November 2007
PQP,FPP,HRA,Transport,Medical Aid, Allowances under the Heads : Special Area , Hill & Fuel, Washing, Split Duty, Cycle, Project Area; PF & Gratuity .
Part Time Employees - Upto 3 hrs - Rs 1030/- 1st November 2007
Upto 6 hrs - Rs 144o/-
Elevation to 1/3rd Scale Wage 1st May 2010
Halting Allowance 1st May 2010
LFC, Hospitalisation, Leave or Hysterectomy,Road Date of settlement Milage, Family Defination.
Discussion was also held for improvement of Hospitalisation Scheme but is yet to be finalised. On outsourcing and Duty of
Special Pay carrying posts, proposal of IBA have been opposed and no conclusion could be reached.
Next round of talks will be held on 13th April.

Striking government employees took to the streets to protest over the Jammu and Kashmir

2010-04-09T00:17:00.000-07:00

With ESMA in force, police detained six leaders of employee unions agitating for release of arrears under the 6th Pay Commission, even as the determined protesters extended the strike to April 13.

Striking government employees took to the streets here on Tuesday to protest over the Jammu and Kashmir Government’s decision to invoke the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) against them.

The employees, who have been on strike for the last three days to press their demand for the release of arrears prescribed by the Sixth Pay Commission Report and the enhancement of retirement age from 58 to 60, held protests at different places across the city.

It has been reported that over 450,000 employees have gone on strike, affecting all government-run institutions.

The Joint Consultative Committee (JCC), Employees Joint Action Committee (EJAC) and Civil Secretariat Employees union (CSEU) called the strike after talks between the government and the employees failed to break the deadlock over the staff’s demands for release of arrears prescribed by the Sixth Pay Commission Report.

"The government had promised to pay our arrears last year, but now it is not fulfilling its promise. Employees were not in favour of strike, but after looking at the despotic attitude of the state government, now we have decided to go against ESMA till April 12," said Ram Kumar Sharma, a leader of the EJAC.

The employees were told that their salaries would be changed as per the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission and would be paid to them after the assembly elections in November-December 2008.

The hiked salaries were given to the employees from Aug 1, 2009, but the arrears due to them from Jan 1, 2006, to July 31, 2009, have not been paid.

The state’s cabinet on Monday, at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, decided to impose ESMA, which will deny employees their salaries if they do not come for work.

All government offices, government schools, civil secretariat and Public Service Undertakings (PSUs) remained closed on Monday on a call given by various employee unions. Only emergency services in hospitals continued unhindered.

All directorate level offices in Srinagar remained closed, including the directorate of the Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CAPD).

IBOC issued its circular No.43 on wage revision

2010-04-09T00:15:00.000-07:00

IBOC issued its circular No. 43 on wage revision. We are reproducing the circular here for our readers.

CIRCULAR NO:43 Date: 05.04.2010

TO ALL AFFILIATES/MEMBERS:

EQUITABLE DISTRIBUTION OF WAGE LOAD TO OFFICERS UP TO SCALE VII

With further reference to our Circular No. 42 dated 3.04.2010, we furnish the following additional data for information of our members.

a) A chart showing the present and revised scales from JMGS-I to TEG Scale VII is
enclosed. The fitment will be on stage to stage basis.

b) Additional stagnation increments will be granted after three years from drawing the last stagnation increment. Similarly 2nd additional stagnation increment will be granted three years after drawing the first additional stagnation increment. Those who have completed more than 6/3 years of service as on 1.11.2007 after drawing last stagnation increment in the existing scale, will be granted Two/One additional stagnation increment with effect from 1.11.2007.

c) D.A. Chart w.e.f 1.11.2007 for various scales is enclosed.

d) C C A is frozen, hence existing CCA will continue to be paid

e) H R A payable w. e. f. 1.11.2007 is enclosed

f) Revised Hill & Fuel allowance is as follows
2% of B.P. Max Rs. 550/- PM
2.5% -- // -- ---- Rs. 680/- PM
5% ---//-- ---- Rs. 1570/- PM

g) Project area allowance
Group .A. centers ---- Rs. 290/- PM
Group .B. Centers ---- Rs. 255/- PM

h) FPP, PQP and Split Duty Allowances are being revised. The details will be advised in due course.

The meeting with four officers. organizations and Core Committee of IBA commenced on 03.04.2010 at 5.pm. Hectic parleys up to the last minute were made by us with the IBA officials to improve upon the various components of salary and allowance. Finally representatives of Officers. Associations and the Core Committee members initialed the distribution chart of wage load which is the basic foundation to arrive at the revised scales and allowances. S/Shri K. Ramakrishnnan, CEO, K. Unnikrishnan Dy. CEO, B.B. Das CGM (HR) SBI, K. Venugopal, Special Officer represented the IBA.

Com. K.S. Shetty, President and Com. G.D.Nadaf General Secretary representated
AIBOC. On behalf of the four Officers. organizations. Com. G.D. Nadaf, Convenor, led the team. The moment initials were affixed to the distribution chart, messages were flashed throughout the country to share the joyous moment. A large number of members who gathered outside the IBA office were eager to know the details and thank the leadership for their relentless efforts in clinching one of the best bipartite settlements in the industry.

It is proposed that next round of discussion on residual issues be held on 9th and 10th April 2010 to finalise the joint note for officers. The UFBU will hold a meeting with IBA on 12.04.2010 to finalize the draft settlement on pension related issues. We expect that by 15th April 2010, final settlement on pension and salary revision will take place.

Comrades we once again compliment all of you for the maturity, conviction and commitment displayed towards the confederation. Thanks for your greetings/ messages. Let us march on to celebrate the 9th Bipartite along with our Silver Jubilee Celebrations in a grand style.

All is well, that ends well. Kindly wait for the defining moment in the history of bipartite settlements on Salary Revision and another Option for Pension.

With greetings

(G.D. NADAF)
GENERAL SECRETARY

Click here to view the details

Grant of Dearness Allowance to the West Bengal State Government employees

2010-04-09T00:12:00.000-07:00

Government of West Bengal
Finance Department
Audit Branch
No. : 2580-F(P) Kolkata, the 6th April, 2010.

M E M O R A N D U M

Subject : Grant of Dearness Allowance to the State Government employees
and further ad-hoc increase in the wages of daily rated workers
under the Government with effect from April 01, 2010.

1. The Governor is pleased to decide that the whole time State Government employees drawing Basic Pay (i.e. Band Pay + Grade Pay, NPA, if any) upto Rs.80000/- p.m. shall draw Dearness Allowance @ 27% with effect from April 01, 2010.

The calculation of Dearness Allowance shall be made taking into
account the revised Band Pay, Grade Pay & NPA, if any but shall not include any other types of pay.

2. The Dearness Allowance sanctioned herein-above should be rounded off to the nearest rupee in each case.

3. The Governor has also been pleased to decide that there will be a further ad-hoc increase in the existing daily rate of wages by Rs.10/- (Rupees Ten) only with effect from April 01, 2010 for the daily rated workers under the Government whose wages are not regulated by any statutory provisions like the Minimum Wages Act, etc.

Sd/- S. K. Chattopadhyay
Special Secretary to the
Government of West Bengal
Finance Department

Download the Order

The Supreme Court has slammed the government for treating army personnel

2010-04-06T00:32:00.000-07:00

The Supreme Court has slammed the government for treating army personnel “bravely defending the country even at the cost of their lives” shabbily and upheld a higher disability pension to an officer who lost his hand in the Siachen.

“This is a pittance (Rs 1,000 a month, plus dearness allowance). If this is the manner in which the army personnel are treated, it is extremely unfortunate…. We regret to say army officers and armymen in our country are being treated in a shabby manner by the government,” Justices Markandey Katju and A.K. Patnaik said.

The government had appealed a Punjab and Haryana High Court order giving C.S. Sidhua higher pension.

The apex court found no reason to interfere with the order. Instead, it was scathing in its criticism of the government for trying to justify such a meagre disability pension. “If a person goes to any part of Delhi and sits for begging, he will earn Rs 1,000 every day and you are offering a pittance of Rs 1,000 per month for a man who fought for the country in the high altitudes and whose arm was amputated?” the two-judge bench said.
Sidhu had joined as a short-service commission officer on June 22, 1968. On November 21, 1970, he met with an accident in the Siachen after which his right arm had to be amputated. He also suffered a compound fracture of the femur (thigh bone) and fracture of the mandible (jaw bone). He was released from service on June 23, 1978.

The army authorities insisted on taking into account the period from June 22, 1968, to November 21, 1970, to calculate his pension. But the high court said the entire commissioned service, from June 22, 1968, to June 23, 1978, should be counted and ordered the authorities to pay the disability pension and other benefits accordingly.
The apex court, upholding the high court order, asked the authorities to clear the arrears within three months, along with interest at the rate of 8 per cent annually. “Army personnel should be treated in a better and more humane manner by the government authorities, particularly, in respect of their emoluments, pension and other benefits,” the bench said.

At yesterday’s hearing, the government was represented by an additional solicitor-general. Sidhu was not present, but the apex court dismissed the government’s appeal without waiting for the officer to place his version.

“… We are in full agreement with the high court that for the purpose of qualifying service for disability pension, the entire period of commissioned service rendered by the respondent has to be taken into account,” it said.

Bihar university and college teachers to go on an indefinite strike from April 8

2010-04-06T00:30:00.000-07:00

Ram Vilas Paswan on Thursday demanded implementation of the UGC package in toto for university and college teachers to maintain the academic ambience on campuses across the state.

Claiming that nearly 20 of the 28 states were already following the 6th Pay Commission pay scale, the LJP chief said: "In Bihar, university and college teachers are being forced to go on an indefinite strike from April 8."

Paswan said though chief minister Nitish Kumar had announced at least three times in the Assembly that his government would enhance the retirement age of university and college teachers from 62 to 65 years and that they would be paid according to the 6th Pay Commission, nothing tangible has happened yet.

Accusing the government of curtailing the powers of the chancellor, the head of all universities, Paswan said only academics of repute should be considered for the post of VC in the state.

Kerala State Government has decided to implement the revised payscale

2010-03-31T00:44:00.000-07:00

The State Government has decided to implement the revised payscale recommended by the University Grants Commission (UGC) for college teachers from the March salary which will be distributed in April.The order to this effect was signed by Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac on Wednesday. The package will be implemented with retrospective effect from January 1, 2006. However, the UGC pay package is being implemented without hiking the pension age.The issue of date of payment of the arrears will be decided later after the Central Government releases the additional assistance.

As per the Chadda Committee recommendation, the Central Government has to provide 80 percent assistance for the additional expenditure for four years till March 31, 2010 to implement the recommendations.This is for the first time in 13 years that the payscale of college teachers is being revised.The revised salaries will be two to three times higher than their present salary. The UGC pay panel has recommended the renaming of the post of lecturer as assistant professor.

The Chadda Committee for pay revision had also recommended multi-source assessment of teachers including self-assessment, assessment by students who have been taught a course by the teacher and assessment by academic heads. The committee had also asked the UGC to evolve parameters relevant to universities and colleges respectively for carrying out such evaluations throughout the country in a uniform manner.As per the recommendation, a teacher should spend at least five hours everyday for five days a week in the institution for teaching, holding tutorials, guiding research or carrying out co-curricular activities.

Employees of Punjab government might have to wait longer to get arrears

2010-03-31T00:40:00.000-07:00

Employees of Punjab government might have to wait longer than they expect to get arrears due to them as per recommendations of Sixth Pay Commission. The issue generated heat in Vidhan Sabha on Thursday as it became amply clear that there was a huge question mark on the Rs 3,000 crore required to dispense all the arrears for which there was no provision in this year’s budget.

The issue was raised by Sunil Jakhar, Ajit Inder Singh Mofer and Rajinder Kaur Bhattal of Congress after finance minister Manpreet Badal’s clarifications on budget left no doubt that the government was in no mood to even consider giving arrears to employees this year.

Attacking the government for its failure, Sunil Jakhar said, "The government is claiming to improve its fiscal deficit situation but it is at the cost of employees who are not being retired and given extensions so it does not have to pay their gratuity and other benefits. No employment is being generated because it will mean more liabilities for the government. Beyond acknowledging that arrears would burden the state with Rs 3,000 crore, finance minister Manpreet Badal has been absolutely silent on when they would be dispensed. This clearly means that the government is backtracking on its commitment and trying to push it for the next government to deal with."

Ajit Inder Singh Mofer, while raising the issue, said, "IAS and IPS officers have been given their arrears from central funds, but what about the common man, who needs money even more."

Giving clarifications on budget, the FM said that the share of centrally sponsored schemes in the state amounted to Rs 1,950 crore, which, if added to the state budget, raised it to over to Rs 11,000 crore.

He said the emphasis in the budget was on irrigation, power, urban development, education and nutrition.

However, the FM was silent on questions raised by Jakhar on the issue of productivity bonus recommended by Sukhbir-Kalia Committee. "This bonus is like a backdoor entry to the farmers’ pockets. The government will take payments of electricity bills and can stop giving reimbursements any time. It is not clear when they will reimburse in the first place and where will that money come from since the committee’s recommendations have fallen hugely short of expectations. It was projected that Rs 4,000 crore will be generated but only Rs 2,600 crore will be garnered by the FM’s own admission."

Tamil Nadu chief minister announced a Dearness Allowance hike

2010-03-31T00:36:00.000-07:00

Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi on Saturday announced a Dearness Allowance (DA) hike of 8% for state government employees, teachers and pensioners with retrospective effect from January 1, 2010.

The hike was declared following the recent increase in the DA allowance for Central government employees, an official release said. The state exchequer would incur an additional expenditure of Rs 1447.76 crore per annum due to the hike.

Despite severe financial burden, the state government announced in May 2009 the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission, thereby increasing the salaries of government employees between Rs 1,775 and Rs 7,300 per month. The government will be paying the Sixth Pay Commission arrears of Rs 11,093 crore in three annual instalments, which will go up to the financial year 2011-12.

The state has been incurring hefty expenditure every year on salaries to its about 12 lakh employees and teachers and around 5 lakh pensioners. Due to the increased expenditure, the estimated revenue deficit of Rs 1,024 crore at the time of budget presentation in 2009 went up to Rs 5,020 crore at the end of the financial year. The government cited the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission’s recommendations as the main reason for this.

The estimated revenue expenditure for the year 2010-11 has been pegged at Rs 66,488.19 crore, of which Rs 23,000 crore will be spent towards staff salaries and pensions, accounting for about one-third of the total expenditure. Associations of state government employees and teachers welcomed the announcement. Office-bearers of the Tamil Nadu Secretariat Association called on Karunanidhi at his Gopalapuram residence and thanked him for the DA hike.

View the Govt. Order

All India consumer price index for Industrial Workers has been raised

2010-03-25T00:32:00.000-07:00

The all India consumer price index for Industrial Workers has been raised by 3 points in January 2010 and stood at 172 points [Source: Labour Bureau, Govt. of India]. It was 169 in December 2009. The D.A due for Central Govt. Employees will also raise to 37% as on 01.02.2010. Hence it is presumed that, the DA due w.e.f. 01.07.2010 would be more than 45% in case the present trend continues and Government is not take any action for reducing the price raise.
02/09: 148
03/09: 148
04/09: 150
05/09: 151
06/09: 153
07/09: 160
08/09: 162
09/09: 163
10/09: 165
11/09: 168
12/09: 169
01/10: 172
Total: 1909 and Tweleve monthly average = 1909/12= 159.08
DA Calculation: 159.08 (-) 115.76 = 43.32 X 100/115.76 = 37.42

In case the price index continue to stay at 172 points from 02/2010 to 06/2010, then the DA payable from 01.07.2010 will be 45% as detailed below:
07/09: 160
08/09: 162
09/09: 163
10/09: 165
11/09: 168
12/09: 169
01/10: 172
02/10: 172 [Assumed]
03/10: 172 [Assumed]
04/10: 172 [Assumed]
05/10: 172 [Assumed]
06/10: 172 [Assumed]
Total: 2019 [If current level is maintained]
Twelve monthly Average is: 2019/12 = 168.25
DA Calculation:
168.25 (-) 115.76 = 52.49 X 100/115.76 = 45.34 %

All India Bank Officers Association denies any settlement so far with IBA

2010-03-25T00:31:00.000-07:00

Following is the version of All India Bank Officers’ Association . It denies any settlement so far with IBA.

"The era of SMS / e mail is again at its overtime work. As if the havoc is not enough the draft copy of the workmen agreement is being circulated under the name of IBA amongst members in Banks.

This is further confounded by the rumours that at 25th March agreement is being signed on Bipartite. Anxious queries and spreading of information is taking place everywhere as to settlement is getting signed.

We have to clarify that the only meeting that took place for officers with IBA was one informal meeting with IBA Chairman on 15.02.2010 at Mumbai where after IBA office gave us a revised chart for scales and other items for discussions.

However the most contentious issue of pension balancing for SBI, incremental cost on pension and date of effect of pension etc., were not taken upon with IBA as it was decided that these issues would be decided in the UFBU meeting.

UFBU meeting is yet to be fixed and we are awaiting the same.

As far as officers are concerned our scale of pay, SBI pension balancing, pension date of effect and incremental cost remain to be decided yet.

Govt. is also yet to react on UFBU proposal of pension costing.

As such we call upon members not to be carried away by rumours. No settlement has been signed and only after UFBU meets and disposes all pending issues and Officers’ Associations agree on the mainframe, agreement will be signed in day light for all to see.

Please bear with the delay caused on account of negative attitude of Govt., and Bankers on some issues."

Source : AIBOA.

Uttar Pradesh state government issued an order releasing salary arrears

2010-03-24T00:45:00.000-07:00

The state government on Monday issued an order releasing salary arrears from December 2008 to June 2009 for the teaching and non-teaching staff of around 345 government-aided degree colleges in the state. Over Rs 78 crore has been released for the purpose. Teachers have welcomed the move but have demanded that government should also release an order for payment of remaining arrears from January 2006 to November 2008 as provided in the revised pay scales.

Similar orders for payment of salary arrears from December 2008 to June 2009 have already been issued for state universities and government colleges. The burden on state exchequer would be around Rs 120 crore. However, this is only the 20% of the total arrears as University Grants Commission (UGC) will bear 80% of the expenses. The UGC had recommended payment of revised pay scales from January 2006 at par with the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission for the Central government employees. In higher education, UGC bears 80% of the expenditure and the state governments have to pay only 20% of the amount.

The order issued on Monday stated that the amount will be given to the degree colleges verifying their actual requirements. Director higher education, will ensure that the teachers and non-teaching staff availing the benefit are those who have been duly appointed on sanctioned posts. The colleges will have to provide the utilisation certificates by March 31, 2010. The grant has been released from the amount of around Rs 149 crore earmarked for the purpose in 2009-10 state annual budget. Sources said that government has also made provisions in 2010-11 annual budget for payment of arrears from January 2006.

West Bengal government had recommended a hike in teachers salaries

2010-03-24T00:44:00.000-07:00

West Bengal : Pay hike and more posts for teachers From increasing emoluments of part-time school and college teachers to enhancing pay of the permanent employees of schools, colleges and universities, from creating new teaching posts to setting up new institutions, the budget promised every attempt to keep the teaching community happy. There is a proposal to create 60,000 new teaching posts in primary schools and 1,500 in undergraduate colleges.

The CPM has in the past banked on the support of party-backed teachers’ lobbies such as the All Bengal Teachers’ Association and the West Bengal College and University Teachers’ Association to win elections. The move to create such a large number of posts is also being seen in the context of the forthcoming elections.

“The announcements will give a boost to the CPM-backed teachers’ lobbies,” said a college principal. “Especially so as CPM supporters hold an edge during any recruitment.”

The government hopes to appease nearly 5,500 part-time teachers working in over 500 state-aided and state-run colleges with the promise of a 35 per cent hike. The part-timers had been up in arms against the government because of the absence of a proper recruitment policy for them.

A 35 per cent hike has also been announced for part-time teachers in government-aided schools.

There is good news for over 12,000 teachers in the 400-odd colleges and 16 universities. After the University Grants Commission had recommended a hike in their salaries, the state had agreed to it in principle but not implemented it.

The finance minister assured the teaching community today that the UGC recommendation would be implemented soon.

The Supreme Court upholding a pay arrears and pension bonanza

2010-03-22T01:07:00.000-07:00

Some 30,000-40,000 armed forces officers who were commissioned or retired between 1986 and 1996 are in for a pay arrears and pension bonanza with the Supreme Court upholding a high court ruling that the amount has been erroneously calculated.

Upholding the Kerala High Court ruling that "rank pay" should be included while calculating an officer’s pay and pension, the Supreme Court has directed this be re-recalculated and paid with retrospective effect from Jan 1, 1986.

"We also direct interest to be paid thereon at 6 percent per annum," a bench of justice Markendey Katju and justice RM Lodha ruled. The judgment was delivered last week but a copy was made available only Tuesday.

The judgment will not apply to officers who were commissioned or retired post-1996 as they are covered under the Fifth and Sixth Pay Commissions.

"With this judgment, the pay of all affected officers will have to be re-fixed from Jan 1, 1986, with consequential benefits on pay, pension, commutation and leave encashment," the Retired Defence Officers Association (RDOA) that pursued the case in the Supreme Court said in a statement.

"The anticipated arrears would range from a couple of thousand rupees to a few lakh per officer depending upon the rank held and reckonable service of the officer. About 30,000 to 40,000 officers, both serving and retired, including widows, would be directly benefited," the statement said.

According to the RDOA, the defence ministry committed a "faux paus" by not including "rank pay" in the total emoluments and then doing the pay fixation, as had been recommended by the Fourth Pay Commission, which presented its final report in 1987.

"This resulted in huge financial loss to the officers with cumulative effect on pay, DA, pension, gratuity and commutation," the association said.

Acting on the plea of Major AK Dhanapalan, a single judge bench of the Kerala High Court October 5, 1998, directed that the calculations be done afresh. A division bench of the high court upheld this July 4, 2003.

The government appealed against this in the Supreme Court and the RDOA also filed its own plea.

Many similar petitions were filed in various high courts all over the country by other officers as well.

"These were clubbed together and transferred to the Supreme Court to be heard along with an transfer petition of similar nature that had arisen out of a case that was allowed on the basis of the judgment in Major Dhanapalan’s case," RDOA said.

Union cabinet has cleared the much awaited dearness allowance for central staff

2010-03-22T01:03:00.000-07:00

As predicted well in advance in this blog, the Union cabinet has cleared the much awaited dearness allowance for central staff.

"The Union Cabinet today decided to release an additional instalment of Dearness Allowance (DA) to Central Government employees and Dearness Relief (DR) to pensioners with effect from 1.1.2010 representing an increase of 8% over the existing rate of 27% of the Basic Pay/Pension, to compensate for price rise.

The increase is in accordance with the accepted formula, which is based on the recommendations of the Sixth Central Pay Commission. The combined impact on the exchequer on account of both dearness allowance and dearness relief would be of the order of Rs.6969.36 crore per annum and Rs.8131.20 crore in the financial year 2010-2011 (for a period of 14 months from January, 2010 to February, 2011)."

View the original PIB Press Release.

Pension Fund and gratuity are components of retirement benefit schemes

2010-03-18T00:20:00.000-07:00

Provident Fund (PF), Pension Fund and gratuity are components of retirement benefit schemes. The Employees’ Provident Fund and Miscellaneous

Provisions Act provides for compulsory contributory fund for the future of an employee after his retirement or for his dependents in case of his untimely death.

Every factory engaged in any industry specified in Schedule I in which 20 or more persons are employed, every establishment employing 20 or more persons or class of such establishments which the Central Government may notify, any other establishment so notified by the Central Government even if employing less than 20 persons is covered.

Both the employee and the employer contribute to the fund at the rate of 12 percent of the basic wages, dearness allowance and retaining allowance, if any, payable to employees per month. The rate of contribution is 10 percent in the case of some establishments which are mentioned in the Act. The rate of interest is fixed by the Central Government in consultation with the Central Board of Trustees, Employees’ Provident Fund every year in March, so it can vary from year to year.

The entire amount of the PF along with the accumulated interest can be withdrawn by an employee on retirement, after attaining the age of 58 years. However, in cases of termination, retirement on account of permanent disablement, on immigration from India for a permanent settlement abroad and in cases of retrenchment, the amount can be withdrawn before the completion of 58 years. A person can also withdraw 90 percent of the amount a year before his retirement.

In case a person is going for a job change, his PF account can be transferred for further continuation. For this, he has to file a transfer application on Form 13 and submit it to the PF office concerned. If a person is switching to an organisation that does not come under this Act, he can receive all the accumulated money which is in his PF account till date. In cases of untimely death of the person, his nominee receives the amount.

The Employees’ Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1952 was amended in1971 and was renamed ’The Employees’ Provident Fund and Family Pension Act 1952’. It was felt that in case of premature death of the worker or a permanent disablement, the PF was too less an amount to support him and his family. This led to the introduction of another social security benefit - pension.
After the last amendment in 1995, Employees’ Pension Scheme 1995 came into effect from November 16, 1995. The assets and liabilities of the erstwhile PF were transferred and merged with the new pension fund. The benefits and entitlements to the members under the old scheme remains protected and continued under the new Employees’ Pension Scheme 1995.

The existing members as on November 16, 1995 of PF who did not opt to join the erstwhile Employees’ Family Pension Scheme 1971 and the beneficiaries under the erstwhile Employees’ Family Pension Scheme 1971 in case of death or exit between April 1, 1993 and November 15, 1995 have the option to join the new scheme.
In case of gratuity, the employer has to contribute to this fund. The amount of gratuity payable is computed at a rate of 17 days’ wages based on the rate of wages last drawn, for every completed year of service. The maximum amount of gratuity payable was Rs 1 lakh earlier. After the 11th amendment to the Act in 1998 the amount payable under the scheme has been raised to Rs 3.5 lakhs. Companies have a choice of opting for a higher benefit of gratuity, that is, a higher total amount to be paid.

Completion of at least five years of continuous service is necessary to receive this amount. However, it does not apply in cases where a person has stopped working due to death or disablement.

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The Home Ministry has allowed flexi-hours for it's employees

2010-03-18T00:17:00.000-07:00

The Home Ministry has allowed flexi-hours for it’s employees with a maximum relaxation of two hours to attend social obligations or visit a doctor but they have to ensure a 40-hour work schedule in the week.

"In exceptional cases like consultation with doctors in Central Government Health Services, hospitals, attending social obligation, late arrival in the morning, early departure in afternoon up to two hours (maximum) will be allowed subject to the condition that prior intimation or approval of the immediate supervising officer has been obtained," Home Secretary G K Pillai said in an order.

The arrangement has been made after the ministry employees made two representations to Home Minister P Chidambaram on November 19 last year and March 3 this year.

Chidambaram had then assured the employees of working out a solution and subsequently asked Pillai to issue an order, sources said.

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Defence Ministry issued orders to implement pending pensionary to ex-servicemen

2010-03-14T23:54:00.000-07:00

In a move that will bring relief to over 12 lakh ex-servicemen, the Defence Ministry has issued orders to implement pending pensionary benefits to them involving an annual expenditure of about Rs 2,200 crore.

The decision followed recommendations by a high-level committee and recent assurance in this regard in the Lok Sabha by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

With these orders, the ministry has implemented all the seven recommendations of committee headed by Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar on pensions, which would now be close to the ’One Rank-One Pension’ demand of ex-servicemen, senior ministry officials said today.

"The Defence Ministry issued the orders on March 8 this year to implement the remaining two of the seven suggestions of the Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar-headed committee on ’One Rank-One Pension’ demand," they said.

A strike by nearly half a million government employees in Jammu and Kashmir

2010-03-14T23:52:00.000-07:00

A strike by nearly half a million government employees in Jammu and Kashmir seeking money in arrears and a higher retirement age paralysed the state administration for the third day Thursday, with teachers also joining the protest.

About 450,000 employees went on strike Tuesday demanding payment of arrears they say the government owes them because of higher salary scales announced by the Sixth Pay Commission. They also want the retirement age to be hiked from 58 to 60.

Even as the authorities grappled with a crippled administration, teachers employed by the state added to the woes by striking work in solidarity, forcing the closure of all government schools.

Education Minister Peerzada Muhammad Syed warned of "stern action" against the teachers, calling their strike "irresponsible" and "callous".

"We cannot allow the teachers to play with the careers of our children. The government has taken serious note of their strike. Stern action will be taken against them," Syed said Thursday.

Except for essential services like healthcare, all government departments have remained closed for three days in the valley.

Ordinary people expressed disgust over the government employees’ strike.

"It is a cruel joke on the common man. I have to submit a permanent resident certificate for my son within this week, and the district office from where such a certificate is issued is closed. What am I supposed to do now?" asked Muhammad Jabbar, 58, Shangus in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district.

The total annual wage bill of the state government is Rs.4,000 crore before the implementation of the latest Pay Commission recommendations.

"The government needs financial support from the central government to pay the arrears. We have taken up the matter with the central government. This will take some time. The arrears cannot be paid overnight," an officer of the state finance department said.

"The enhancement of retirement age from 58 to 60 will result in stoppage of recruitments in government departments for two years, which will add to the problems of thousands of qualified, unemployed youth.
"All these factors have to be seriously weighed before a decision is taken on this issue," the officer said.

The striking employees claim that the government had last year promised that both demands would be soon met.

"We have decided to continue the struggle for our just cause. Unless the government meets our demands, we shall announce a detailed agitational programme March 15," a striking employee said.

Source : Zeenews

It has been reported that four officers organisations met IBA chairman and his team

2010-03-14T23:49:00.000-07:00

Update on Bank Pay Hike : It has been reported that four officers organisations met IBA chairman and his team. Talks are reported to be fruitful. Next date of the meeting is yet to be declared. However, these are likely to be resumed next week.

The full text of the AIBOC statement : "An informal meeting with IBA took place at Chairman’s office, Union Bank of India, HO, Mumbai yesterday [11.03.2010] at the request of Four Officers’ Organizations.

The meeting was participated by Shri M.V.Nair, Chairman, IBA along with Shri Jagdish Pai, ED, Canara Bank, Shri K.R. Kamath, CMD, Punjab National Bank, Shri Dr. K.Ramakrishnan, Chief Executive, IBA, Mr K.Unnikrishnan, Dy.Chief Executive, IBA and Mr.M.Venugopalan, Officer on Special Duty IBA and also representatives of Four Officer’ Organizations.

In this meeting as earlier decided by Officers’ Organizations matters pertaining to UFBU related MOU on Pension etc., were not discussed.

We explained our subsisting demand and need for flexibility on the part of IBA. IBA Chairman was very positive and requested us to sit with IBA officials and sort out the matters, where after Small committee will meet.

Yesterday meeting was positive on some aspects.

Further developments will be informed."

Regulation of journeys by private airlines while availing Leave Travel Concession

2010-03-14T23:47:00.000-07:00

NO.31011/2/2006-Esst.(A)
Government of India
Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions
Department of Personnel & Training
***************

Dated the 11th March, 2010

Subject:- Regulation of journeys by private airlines while availing Leave Travel Concession

The undersigned is directed to refer to Department of Expenditure O.M.No 19024/1/2009-E.IV dated 13/7/2009 and this Department’s O.M. No. 31011/2/2006-Esst-(A) dated 27.7.2009 regarding journey by air while availing Leave Travel Concession (LTC), stipulating that in all cases of air travel (including LTC) both domestic and international where the Government of India bears the cost of air passage, the official concerned may travel by Air India only.

2. It is clarified that restriction of travel by Air India only need not apply to non-entitled officers who travel by air and claim LTC reimbursement by entitled class of rail.

3. The above orders will be applicable with effect from the date of issue of this Office Memorandum. Past cases already settled will not be re-opened.

4. This issues in consultation with Ministry of Finance (Department of Expenditure) vide their I.D. No. 19024/1/2009-E.IV dated 9.3.2010.

(P.Prabhakaran)
Deputy Secretary to the Government of India

View the O.M. Dated 11.03.2010.

Tussle between 4.5 lakh Jammu and Kashmir employees

2010-03-10T00:16:00.000-08:00

Even as the stalemate between the Government and its employees continues over the implementation of the sixth pay commission recommendations, statistics reveal the government employees have attended work barely for 13 days in the past nearly one and a half month due to strikes, state holidays and other reasons.

Tussle between 4.5 lakh employees and the state government over the implementation of recommendations of the sixth pay panel began in the middle of last year, since then routine work in government and semi-government offices has suffered due to frequent strikes and protests called by various employee unions.

The statistics of the past one and a half month reveals that effect of ongoing agitation by employees is draining the state exchequer. Since February1 the employees have stayed away from work for as many as 23 days.

In 28 days of February the work in government and semi-government offices remained affected for 20-days and there were only eight working days. The off days include: A day of protests called by JCC demanding implementation of sixth pay commission recommendations in toto, assembly gherao and lockout of offices on JCC’s call on February 25, two days strike call given by JK employees Joint Action Committee-breakaway faction of JCC-on February 16 and 17, four Sundays, two state holidays on Feb 12 and 27, and 10 days of unrest leading to strikes and restrictions imposed by the state.

In the first eight days of current month, employees remained away from offices on three days. It includes one-day strike called by pro-freedom camp on March 1, state holiday on March 5 and a Sunday.

While criticizing the government for not adhering to the agreement made with the employees, the president Federation Chamber of Industries Kashmir - apex body of business and trade organization in Kashmir - Shakeel Qalandar told Greater Kashmir that the state was losing around Rs 30 crore to the strikes every day.

“Since there aren’t any salary cuts of the employees for strikes, we are losing about Rs 30 crore a day and that is purely public money. The strikes are badly affecting the economy, our GDP, out per capita income besides inconvenience to the public,” he said.

“But both the government and employees must act responsibly to stabilize the economy of the state. The government must fulfil its promise, and employees need to realize that frequent strikes won’t serve any purpose,” he said.

Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir Employees Joint Action Committee (JKEJAC) has threatened to call for an indefinite strike if their demands are not met by March 11.

Manipur chief minister to pay arrears of hiked salaries and other monetary benefits

2010-03-10T00:10:00.000-08:00

The chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh has asserted in no uncertainterms that the state government is in no position to pay arrears of hiked salaries and other monetary benefits except for implementing the bare basic of the salaries recommended by the 6th Pay Commission for Central employees.

The chief minister disclosed in a discussion on the motion of thanks to the Governor’s address to the Manipur Legislative Assembly.

The demand by state government employees for implentation of the 6th Pay Commission provision with retrospective effect as in the case of Central government employees and payment of arrears would not be feasible, the chief minster said participating in the discussion on the motion of thanks to the recent Governor’s address delibered on February 12 sitting of the Manipur Legislative Assembly.

The chief minister further said to meet the demands of the employees of the state for the payment of arrears, state government did approach the Planning Commision of India and made an official proposal include the funds for the arrears in calculating the entitlements of the state for the coming years.

He said the state government officially proposed for a total of Rs 21,000 crores to the Planning Commission of India to be relected in the 13th Finance Commission award for the state for the implementation of Sixth Pay Commission and for the payment of arrears to its employees as demanded by the apex employees bodies of JAC of AMTUC and AMGEO.

He further said that the 6th Pay Commission’s pay scales will come into effect from January 1, 2006.If arrears for the entire period between then and now have to be paid off, about Rs 2,000 crore will be needed.

If the 6th Pay Commission’s pay scales are to be paid along with arrears from March, the state will come back to the stage when the treasury remained closed for two/three months at a stretch and pay the employees’ salary after two/three months.

Therefore, the government must spend according to the income.

The 6th Pay scales will be paid to the pensioners too, the Chief Minister said.

Source : Kangla Online and E-PAO.

Central government owned PSUs shed 31,000 employees during the year

2010-03-05T23:39:00.000-08:00

Hit by the slow down in the economy in 2008-09, central government owned public sector undertakings (PSUs) shed 31,000 employees during the year. The number of people employed by the Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) came down to 15.35 lakh at the end of 2008-09 from 15.66 crore in the previous fiscal, the Public Enterprises survey stated.

Even as the number employed reduced, the overall profits of the PSUs increased to Rs 1 lakh crore in 2008-09 from Rs 91,571 crore a year ago. The employee strength of the CPSEs has been constantly coming down since 2001-02 during which they had a staff of about 20 lakh. The PSU Survey also revealed that out of a total of 15.35 lakh people employed by 242 CPSEs in 2008-09, only 1.29 lakh were women.

“A good number of CPSEs, are faced with a high rate of attrition, as employees are leaving to join other organisations on account of higher salaries being offered elsewhere,” the survey said. The wage bill of CPSEs went up by 28.67 per cent during 2008-09 to Rs 82,735 crore from Rs 64,300 crore in the year ago period mainly on account of Pay Commission recommendations. Foreign exchange earnings through exports increased 9.61 per cent in 2008-09 to Rs 74,184 crore while the outflow on imports, primarily crude oil, also went up 16.46 per cent to Rs 4,28,821 core.

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Backlog reserved vacancies in government of india Ministries and Department

2010-03-05T23:37:00.000-08:00

Backlog reserved vacancies in government of india Ministries and Department. As per information received from 37 Ministries/Departments of Government of India, the number of backlog reserved vacancies of the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and the Other Backward Classes as on 01.11.2008 were 3537, 2969 and 6439 respectively.

The Government has launched a Special Recruitment Drive to fill up the backlog reserved vacancies of SCs, STs and OBCs.

This information was given by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Shri Prithviraj Chavan in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha.

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The deadlock between the university teachers and Uttar Pradesh government

2010-03-05T23:28:00.000-08:00

With the deadlock between the university teachers and state government continuing for the last six months over the date of the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission, the state administration today invited the teachers for talks on March 8 to resolve the matter.

The date of implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission is January 1, 2006, but the university teachers have been struggling to get their due as the state government has been giving them the benefit from December 1, 2008. The protests have led to the postponement of the examinations in the universities of Meerut and Gorakhpur.

The tentative examination schedule for Lucknow University has also been shifted to March 22.To intensify their protest, the Federation of Uttar Pradesh Residential University Teachers Association and Federation of Uttar Pradesh University College Teachers Association are now planning to go on a mass leave on March 8 and a relay fast and demonstration at Shaheed Smarak on March 9, 10 and 11.Anil Sant, Secretary of Higher Education, said: “We are calling the teachers for another round of talks on Monday. We will not tolerate pressure tactics by the teachers for recovering the arrears.”

“ESMA has already been enforced in the state and action will be taken against those who do not cooperate with the administration for conducting the examinations. We don’t want the session to be delayed and the examinations will be conducted within the given time frame,” said Sant.

Dr Maulindu Mishra, president of the Lucknow University Associated College Teachers’ Association, said: “A state government order, dated February 28, 2009, declared that the Sixth Pay Commission will be implemented from December 1, 2008 onwards and the arrears pertaining to the period between January 1, 2006 and November 31, 2008 should be considered ‘kalpanik’ (imaginary).”

“The government implemented the Sixth Pay Commission for university teachers in July 2009 and is also promising to soon pay the arrears due between December 1, 2008 and June 30, 2009,” added Mishra.

“While the UGC is paying 80 per cent of the arrears, the state government is only being asked to pay 20 per cent. Yet the government is not ready to pay us the arrears since 2006. They are not ready to ask the UGC for the arrears between January 2006 and November 2008,” said Chitaranjan Mishra, president of UP Residential Universities Teachers Association (UPRUTA).

“The government has implemented the Sixth Pay Commission for all the other services from January 2006 onwards. But in our case, they are not ready to do so,” added Mishra.
According to Sant, around 14 states have already implemented the Sixth Pay Commission since January 1, 2006 but are yet to receive the Central government funds.
“Till date we have not received a single penny from UGC. The complete calculations of the arrears starting from January 2006 till March 2010 have been sent to the UGC. We have used the word ‘kalpnik’ because if we remove it, we will have to pay the entire amount, which is not possible,” said Sant.

“We are waiting for the UGC to release the funds to any of the 14 states and we will follow suit,” added Sant.

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Meghalaya government has decided to implement the new UGC pay scale

2010-03-04T23:28:00.000-08:00

The Meghalaya government has decided to implement the new UGC (University Grants Commission) pay scale for its college teachers with retrospective effect from January 1, 2006.

The decision was approved by the State Cabinet yesterday, Chief Minister DD Lapang informed after the meeting late last evening.

State Education Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh informed that the arrears will amount to Rs. 70 crore.

The State would bear 20 per cent of the total salary while the remaining will be borne by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, she added.

Ms. Lyngdoh said the government had also been considering increase of pay and allowances to other categories of teachers.

The last revision of pay for the college teachers was in 1996.

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Air India to impose a 15-17 per cent cut on the total salary package

2010-03-04T23:25:00.000-08:00

After stiff resistance from its employees against a steep pay cut, National Aviation Company of India Ltd), which runs Air India, has come out with a fresh proposal to impose a 15-17 per cent cut on the total salary package.The total package includes basic salary, dearness allowance, house rent allowance and payments made under the productivity-linked incentive scheme . The cut, however, would not be applicable on employees (about 4,000, according to unions) who have a gross salary of less than Rs 20,000 a month.

The new proposal, which has to be cleared by the Cabinet, comes a few months after the airline had made an attempt, since aborted, to push through a plan for a 50 per cent reduction in PLI across the board for its 32,000 employees. That plan was targeted to save Rs 600 crore. But, it wasn’t pushed through because of stiff opposition from the employees.

PLI constitutes 40 per cent of the company’s total annual wage bill of around Rs 3,000 crore. The cut proposed by the new offer is much lower; the earlier one would have cut the salary package by 20 per cent.

The cut in salary would be the key in ensuring the airline is able to raise Rs 1,870 crore from internal resources, a nine-fold increase of what it has been able to rustle up in 2009-10 (only Rs 202.4 crore). Even in 2008-9, the airline had generated only Rs 429 crore from internal resources.

The blueprint for recovery included introducing advertising through the entertainment system on the aircraft, securitisation of its prime real estate, which includes the iconic Air India Building in Mumbai’s upmarket Nariman Point, to raise loans and further rationalisation of routes.

Confirming the new plan, a senior ministry official said: "We have to raise funds through internal resources. The key to that would be a new plan for cut on the overall pay package of employees by 15-17 per cent, rather than go in for a steep cut in PLI, which has been opposed by employees. Through these measures, we hope to save between Rs 700 crore and Rs 800 crore."

The airline will get equity infusion of Rs 1,200 crore for 2010-11 as earmarked in the budget, apart from Rs 800 crore received from the government in the financial year 2009-10. The equity infusion of Rs 2,000 crore was part of the government’s decision to bale out the airline from its financial crises and help it reduce its huge losses, as high as Rs 7,000 crore in 2008-09 and expected to increase by another Rs 4,000 crore in 2010-11.

The airline has not been able to meet its targets for 2009-10, when it was expected to save over Rs 2,000 crore from various measures. It has, according to the ministry, being able to save only Rs 800 crore.

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There is no likelyhood for early settlement as IBA's attitude

2010-03-01T23:05:00.000-08:00

It is reported that the talks held on this day have remained inconclusive and there is no likelyhood for early settlement as IBA’s attitude appears to be inflexibale.

Now MOU dated 27/11/2009 (wherein it was agreed that final agreement will be done within 90 days) has expired on 25/02/2009. It is a matter of great concern for the bankers as they have waited for 90 days by holding their breath, hoping at least now something will be finalised. However, both IBA and unions betrayed the bankers. Instead of talking on a day on day basis, meetings were fixed after fortnights or more. It is strange that inspite of broad understanding of the maximum that will be given by IBA, both parties are fighting on petty matters.

A letter issued by GD Nadaf, General Secretary, AIBOC indicates that "on none of our proposals, there was a positive response form the IBA and they stuck to their method of calculation of additional cost on HRA, pension and distribution of wage load of 17.5% on various scales. It appeared that, we have reached a dead end. The discussions concluded without any fruitful result"

Is it not a clear admission by these leaders that they failed to convince IBA even on one of their proposals? Should members believe that these leaders are either talking illogical or without facts with IBA? Should members believe that these leaders have no sting left in them to even move IBA by an inch? The above statement is clear admission of the failures of the union leaders. There is strong feeling among the bankers that such retired bankers holding high posts in the unions and enjoying the benefits from the monthly subscription of the members and taking levy on settlements should immediately resign and leave the field for serving and young members.

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President AGOTE were able to meet Acting Chairman AICTE

2010-03-01T03:35:00.000-08:00

A delegation including Mr. K S. Shivaramu(President AGOTE) were able to meet Prof S S Mantha (Acting Chairman AICTE). Brief and relevant details of the meeting are reproduced as under:

1) The Chairman expressed his dissatisfaction about the type and number of anamolies being raised at various levels and by various associations/persons. This he said, shall only delay the notification process . In a veiled manner , we were also made to understand that genuine anamolies can also be raised after the publication of the Gazette notification and that the process of notification should be allowed to continue.

2) We requested him to rectify certain gross anamolies like the AGP of Rs.5000/- may be raised to at least Rs.5400/- . It was pointed that even the FI gets an AGP more than Rs.5000/- as proposed in the draft regulation. The Chairman gave a very serious consideration to this submission and MAY be(MAY BE) he would accept this request. However, we cannot categorically commit the same.

3) The Chairman was requested to give thought to the request that the new rules and conditions should not be applicable to the people who joined on or before 1.1.2006 . He said he would not be able to comment on this request immediately. 4) The Chairman was requested to release the final Gazette notification at the earliest as any further delay would deprive us of the opportunity to get 40% of the arrears in the current financial year. The Chairman said that as per the present regulations, all AICTE notifications are to be vetted by the AICTE Executive Council. Infact he had already sent the notification for publication but had to withdraw because of the same was not vetted by the AICTE EC. He further disclosed that the AICTE EC is scheduled for the 26th Feb’2010 wherein the entire recommendations shall be discussed and finalized.

Immediately after the EC meeting he shall ensure that the firm and final regulation is sent to ‘The Department of Publication , Govt of India’ for publication in the Gazette of India. To expedite the process of publication in the Gazette , the notification shall be published through the GAZETTE EXTRAORDINARY. ( The Gazette of India is a weekly/bi-weekly publication. However, if there is an emergent situation, then the notification is published in 2/3 days time, and such an issue, is termed as the GAZETTE EXTRAORDINAY). He is positively hopeful that the regulations shall be notified in the Gazette by the 5th of March 2010. ( Note that Feb has only 28 days and Holi falls on 1st March 2010). 5) As a gesture of gratitide, the Chairman was given a ‘Thanks’ card . The meeting ended on a very cordial note.

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State Bank of India to announce an improved pension scheme for the bank officers

2010-02-17T23:38:00.000-08:00

The State Bank of India Officers’ Association (SBIOA) wants its management to announce an improved pension scheme for the bank’s 60,000 officers and 1.20 lakh other employees simultaneously with the industry-wide ninth bipartite wage settlement, whenever the overdue settlement takes place.

The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), the association of bank employees of 19 nationalized commercial banks in the country, all of whom come under one or the other nine bank unions forming the Forum is, for quite some time now, in negotiation with the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA), the body representing the different bank managements, over finalising the ninth industry-wide bipartite settlement.

Speaking to FE here on Sunday, G D Nadaf, general secretary, All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), who is also general secretary of the All India State Bank Officers’ Federation (AISBOF), said despite the seven-day nation-wide strike in 2006, the SBI management had “done little” towards improving its existing pension scheme.
“The improvements are yet to come; we have already taken up the issue with the government, we want this issue also to be settled along with the industry-level ninth bipartite currently underway,” said Nadaf.

Among the improvements being demanded by the AISBOF in the bank’s existing pension scheme are that the pension amount receivable by the employee should be 50% of his/her last earned basic pay; that all old pensioners from 1997-98 should also be brought under the fold of the improved scheme as such pensions relate to the 1991 pay-scale.
It also wants 100% neutralisation of dearness allowance (DA) in its pension scheme, which today is there only for employees who continue to serve the bank and not for its pensioners.

The AISBOF general secretary, who was here to attend the 19th triennial general body meeting of State Bank of India Officers’ Association (Patna circle), said the commutation formula in SBI’s existing pension scheme too needed improvement as it was the “worst” in the industry. He said the federation also wants that SBI should incur a proportionate cost of that to be spent by the rest of the industry i.e Rs 6,300 crore for implementing the recently agreed second pension option for banking industry personnel other than SBI.

As SBI had in 1993 borne a proportionate cost in implementing the first industry-wide pension option, Nadaf said the bank should, this time too, share the cost.

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Haryana government has decided to allow Child Care Leave

2010-02-17T23:29:00.000-08:00

Haryana government has decided to allow Child Care Leave (CCL) to its women employees to take care of their children at the time of need whether for rearing or to look after any of their needs like examination and sickness.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said today that CCL would be granted for a maximum period of two years (i.e. 730 days) to a woman employee during the entire service period for taking care of her two eldest surviving children below the age of 18 years.

CCL would not be debited against the leave account but would be admissible when the concerned woman employee has no earned leave at her credit, he said.

The Chief Minister said the leave salary as admissible while on earned leave would also be admissible during the period of CCL upto 730 days.

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Kerala government decided to constitute a Pay Commission

2010-02-17T23:27:00.000-08:00

Kerala government today decided to constitute a Pay Commission to recommend revision of scales for government employees and teachers in the state.

The commission, which would be chaired by Justice R Rajendra Babu, a retired judge of Kerala High Court, has been asked to submit its report within six months, Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan told reporters here.

Pay revision, matters relating to pension amount, promotion and other allowances will be some of the major agenda in the terms and reference of the commission, he said.

A 30-member Commission secretariat would also be constituted, Achuthanandan said. Economist at the Centre of Development Studies P Mohanan Pilla and Advocate P Venugopalan Nair are the other members of the commission.

There are about 4.5 lakh government employees and teachers in the state and their pay scales were last revised in early 2006.

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Government ordered the dearness allowance has to be calculated based on CPI-IW

2010-02-14T23:54:00.000-08:00

Needless to say, dearness allowance is an important component of our salary in this inflationary trend. It is based on monthly All India Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (Base year 2001=100) announced by the Government from time to time.

Check this Labour Bureau, Department Statistics, Government of India website to know about CPI-IW index published every month.

After implementation of sixth pay commission report, Government ordered that the dearness allowance has to be calculated based on CPI-IW index with the base year 2001=100.

So, DA with effect from the period 1.1.2006, has to be calculated using average Price CPI-IW index of 536 for 2005 (base 1982=100) adjusted to the base year 2001=100 by dividing the same with the Linking Factor between 1982 and 2001 Series which is 4.63. As a result, the average consumer price index (Industrial workers) for 12 months in 2005 (base 2001=100) was worked out to 115.76.

How to calculate Dearness Allowance from the year 2006, twice a year using this average index? It’s quite simple. Say, if you want to calculate Dearness Allowance with effect from Jan-06, get the average of monthly All India Consumer Price Index (IW) with the base year 2001=100 for the preceding 12 months and apply the same in the following formula

Like wise DA with effect from 1.1.2007, 1.7.2007, 1.1.2008, 1.7.2008, 1.1.2009, and 1.7.2009 were calculated as 6%, 9%, 12%, 16%, 22%, and 27% respectively.

For your convenience, here is a small and smart tool that can calculate the dearness allowance with effect from January or July of a particular year in the future, once the AICPI(IW) till the previous month is published by the Government and you fill up the same in this tool.

This AICPI (IW) (base year 2001=100) for each month would be available in the Labour Bureau, Department Statistics, Government of India website and would be updated each month. Any way we will update the DA calculator tool with the latest AICPI (IW) for each month once the same is published Government.

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The revised pay scales has been an increase to UGC teachers

2010-02-14T23:46:00.000-08:00

With the implementation of the revised pay scales by the University Grants Commission (UGC) for college and university teachers, there has been an increase in the salaries with effect from January 1, 2006. But the UGC has totally ignored the teachers in the ad hoc category, whose strength comprise more than 75 per cent in colleges.

In a college there are three category of teachers - ad hoc who work on fixed salaries varying from Rs 6000 and Rs 12000 per month. In the second category, teachers working against unaided posts in colleges, which are on grant in aid list of the government and teachers working on aided posts, where 95 per cent of salaries being paid by the government.

As against the four posts earlier (lecturers, senior scale lecturer, selection scale lecturer and principal), there will now be three posts viz assistant professor, associate professor and principal whose revised salary has seen a surge of 50 to 55 per cent.

For instance, an assistant professor who earlier got a salary between 8000-13500 will now get 15600-39100 + academic grade pay (6000). While an associated professor, who earlier used to draw 12000-18300, will now get 37400-67000 + AGP (9000). And college principals earlier used to get two types of grades, one was 12000-18300, while the other slab was 16400-22400. But now both these categories have been put under slab, i.e. 37400-67000 with AGP of 10,000.
This way a newly appointed teacher will get more than Rs 30,000 per month and a teacher with an experience of 12 years or more will fetch around Rs Rs 70,0000. But the UGC grades have completely ignored the ad hoc lecturers.

Talking to Newsline, Raman Sharma, an ad hoc teacher, said, “This is a grave injustice. We are given 30 periods per week which are more than the periods assigned to the permanent staff. Still we are given meagre salaries.”

Dr Mukesh Arora, Member of Panjab University, Senate, said, “The UGC should also grant at least minimum basic salaries to the qualified adhoc teachers along with some DA.”

Source : Indian Express.

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The Government is bringing a new Health Insurance Scheme

2010-02-12T23:43:00.000-08:00

Recommendations of Sixth Pay Commission, provided for implementing an alternative health insurance scheme in the place of existing CGHS. Of course, the existing CGHS requires to be revamped for the very reason that it caters to minority of Government employees.

While Central Government employees community are posted knook and corner of the country, the existing CGHS is limited only to 26 cities. As we all know, the rest of places are covered by Central services (Medical Attendance) Rules, which seldom serve the real purpose.

In this scenario, the present contemplation of the Government in bringing a new Health Insurance Scheme in the place of existing CGHS, and medical treatment under Central services (Medical Attendance) Rules, is positive and welcome one.

We provide here the official documents released by the Government (which is available in Ministry of health and family welfare) for assessing the willingness of the CG employees to join in the proposed health insurance Scheme. This documentation is named as Demand Survey.

We request all the Gconnect readers to go through the document and apply in the given format in case they are willing to join as beneficiary in the proposed health insurance scheme.

Some of our friends pointed out the documentation is slightly vague in the sense that whether the proposed scheme is applicable for non-CGHS centers as the filled up applications were required to be furnished at the CGHS centers available in 26 cities mentioned in the said documentation.

However, we feel that as per the wordings of the demand survey document as well as earlier proposals of the government the scheme has been proposed for non-CGHS centers also and the employees belonging to non-CGHS centers can send the willingness to the Deputy Director, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare directly (address mentioned in the document survey)

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The Income Tax Department's QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

2010-02-12T23:36:00.000-08:00

INCOME TAX - QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS :-
What is an Assessment Year?
It is the twelve-month period 1st April to 31st March immediately following the previous year [refer answer-4]. In the Assessment year a person files his return for the income earned in the previous year. For example for FY:2006-07 the AY is 2007-08.
What does the Income Tax Department consider as income?
The word Income has a very broad and inclusive meaning. In case of a salaried person, all that is received from an employer in cash, kind or as a facility is considered as income. For a businessman, his net profits will constitute income. Income may also flow from investments in the form of Interest, Dividend, and Commission etc. Infect the Income Tax Act does not differentiate between legal and illegal income for purpose of taxation. Under the Act, all incomes earned by persons are classified into 5 different heads, such as:
Income from Salary
Income from House property
Income from Business or Profession
Income from capital gains
Income from other sources
My children living abroad send me Rs.20000/- per month for my maintenance. Would this be considered as my income?
No.
What is a return of income?
It is a prescribed form through which the particulars of income earned by a person in a financial year and taxes paid on such income is communicated to the Income tax department after the end of the Financial year. Different forms are prescribed for filing of returns for different Status and Nature of income.
From where can I get a return form?
The Public Relation Officer [PRO] can be contacted for this purpose.
How can I know which form is applicable for my income?
You should choose a return form according to your status and nature of income from the following:
ITR1 - For Individuals having Income from Salary/ Pension/ family pension & Interest
ITR2 - For Individuals and HUFs not having Income from Business or Profession
ITR3 - For Individuals/HUFs being partners in firms and not carrying out business or profession under any proprietorship
ITR4 - For individuals & HUFs having income from a proprietary business or profession
ITR5 - For firms, AOPs and BOIs
ITR6 - For Companies other than companies claiming exemption under section 11
ITR7 - For persons including companies required to furnish return under section 139(4A) or section 139(4B) or section 139(4C) or section 139(4D)
ITR8 - Return for Fringe Benefits
ITRV - Where the data of the Return of Income/Fringe Benefits in Form ITR-1, ITR-2, ITR-3, ITR-4, ITR-5, ITR-6 &
ITR-8 transmitted electronically without digital signature
If I fail to furnish my return within the due date of filing, will I be fined or penalized?
Yes. This may take the form of interest if the return is not filed before the end of the assessment year. If the return is not filed even after the end of the assessment year, penalty may also be levied.
If I have paid excess tax how and when will it be refunded?
The excess tax can be claimed as refund by filing your income tax return. It will be refunded by issue of cheque or by crediting to your bank account. The department has been making efforts to settle refund claims within four months from the month of filing return.
There are various deductions that have not been reflected in the Form 16 issued by my employer. Can I claim them in my return
Yes.
What is considered as Salary income?
Whatever is received by an employee from an employer in cash, kind or as a facility [perquisite] is considered as Salary.
What are allowances? Are all allowances taxable?
Allowances are fixed amounts, apart from salary, which are paid by an employer for the purpose of meeting some particular requirements of the employee. There are generally three types of allowances for the purpose of income tax- taxable, fully exempted and partially exempted.
My employer reimburses all my expenses on grocery and children’s education. Would this be considered as income?
Yes. These are in the nature of perquisite.
Even if no taxes have been deducted from salary, is there any need for my employer to issue Form-16 to me?
Form-16 is a certificate of TDS and in your case it will not apply. However your employer must issue a salary statement.
If I am receiving my pension through a bank who will issue Form-16 or pension statement to me- the bank or my former employer?
The bank.
Are retirement benefits such as PF and Gratuity taxable?
No. They are exempt subject to conditions and limits laid down in the Income Tax Act.
Can my employer consider relief u/s 89(1) for the purposes of calculating my tax liability?
Yes.
Is leave encashment taxable as salary?
It is taxable if received while in service. Received as retirement benefit, however it is exempt subject to certain conditions.
What is TDS?
TDS means Tax Deducted at Source. It is the amount withheld from payments of various kinds such as salary, contract payment, commission etc. This withheld amount can be adjusted against your tax due.
Some demand has been raised by my Assessing officer after assessment. Can I pay this demand in installments or seek time till my appeal is settled?
Yes. You may approach your Assessing officer within 30 days of receipt of demand notice for installments or stay or seek time for payment. However you are liable to pay interest for delay in payment of demanded tax.

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Orissa police have threatened to go on a strike from February 25

2010-02-11T22:59:00.000-08:00

About 45,000 low-ranking personnel of Orissa police have threatened to go on a strike from February 25, if their 13-point charter of demands, including revised pay scale at par with the central government employees were not fulfilled by February 20.

"The state government will be responsible if the low-ranking police personnel go on strike. We have already served ultimatum to the authorities," Constable, Havildar and Sepoy Mahasangha president Padmanabha Behera told reporters here.

Alleging that low-ranking police personnel did not got benefit from the recommendations of the 6th Pay Commission, Behera said they were forced to go on agitation as none in the administration paid any heed to their demands.

The Mahasangha had withdrawn its proposed cease work agitation in view of the government’s appeal last year.

Source : PTI

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Haryana government will pay second instalment of arrears

2010-02-08T23:44:00.000-08:00

The Haryana government will pay second instalment of arrears of 30 per cent to its pensioners and family pensioners accruing on account of implementation of the pension/family pension revision.

As per a letter issued by the Finance Department, 30 per cent arrears out of 60 per cent would be payable after one year of drawal of first instalment of 40 per cent arrears and the balance 30 per cent arrears would be payable after one year of the drawal of second instalment of 30 per cent arrears, an official spokesman said here today.

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Uttarakhand employees strike virtually paralysing the functioning of the government

2010-02-08T23:42:00.000-08:00

During the past one month, over 30,000 babus, called ministerial services employees in the hill state, are on indefinite strike, virtually paralysing the functioning of the government.

Despite repeated appeals issued by the government, the bubus appear to be in no mood to relent, even threatening to prolong the strike. The striking employees are demanding pay scales at par with the central government employees. “We have got the benefits of the 6th Pay Commission. But our pay scales are still lower than those of the central government’s,” said a union leader of the employees.

The government, which is still fighting with the burden of the pay commission, has been holding parleys with the employees but a deadlock still persisted on Monday. In a fresh appeal issued today, Principal Secretary Shatrughan Singh asked the employees to return to work or face dire consequences.

“We are initiating action against a couple of the top striking leaders and would even invoke Esma. If the strike continues, others will also be punished,” said a top official said.

Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriya Nishank has already told the officials to accept the bare minimum demands of the striking employees.

According to President of Uttarakhand Federation of Ministerial Services Association (UFMSA) T S Pundir, the government had backtracked on its earlier agreement reached last year on the higher pay scales.

As the strike prolongs, the work is suffering in the hill state.

“Files are not moving in our offices due to the strike. It seems everything is at a standstill,” admitted a district magistrate. However, a section of employees have reported back to work in Tehri district, officials here said.

The government has already implemented the pay commission recommendations with retrospective effect from Jan 1, 2006 giving benefits to nearly 163,000 employees and over 40,000 pensioners. According to an estimate, the 6th Pay Commission has put an annual burden of Rs 4,000 crore on the state exchequer.

Source : Business Standard.

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IDBI Bank has moved to a variable pay structure for its off

2010-02-03T23:55:00.000-08:00

Only public sector player to have performance-linked salary.

Ignoring a government advisory, IDBI Bank has moved to a variable pay structure for its officers, who will now have a 70 per cent fixed salary component.

In the process, it has become the first public sector bank to shift to this structure, while the other banks, that are part of a negotiated wage structure, gave up the plan in the wake of opposition from employee unions.

The move came as a surprise for most IDBI Bank managers, who discovered the shift only after they received their salary for January. The government has also set up a committee, headed by former Bank of Baroda Chairman and Managing Director A K Khandelwal, to review the human resource policies of public sector banks and variable pay is one of the issues being discussed.

The bank has also raised salaries around 20 per cent, three bank executives said.

While IDBI Bank Executive Director (Human Resources) Pramod Sadar Joshi confirmed the variable pay package had been implemented, he did not respond to an e-mailed questionnaire. An IDBI Bank spokesperson said Joshi was tied up with meetings.

Executives said they were surprised the bank had gone ahead and implemented the move, since there was no mechanism in place to measure their performance.

Also, last May the government had written to IDBI Bank to put on hold plans to shift to variable pay and harmonised service conditions, saying the proposals required closer examination. Bank workmen had got a stay, following an intervention by the labour commissioner. Following this, the bank had put its plan to implement a variable pay structure on hold.

IDBI Bank wanted to shift to a uniform pay structure as it had merged three entities to form the present bank. While IDBI, the development financial institution was converted into a bank seven years ago, IDBI Bank and United Western Bank were merged into the new entity. Each entity had a different set of service rules and salary structure and the bank management was trying to harmonise these.

At least two bank executives said the revised salary scheme had been implemented with retrospective effect and the bank would pay arrears over the next few days.

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Foreign banks to change the way they pay on salaries and bonuses

2010-02-03T23:53:00.000-08:00

The move is aimed at avoiding attention on bonuses after an outcry across the world over the huge pay of bankers.

A regulatory glare on salaries and bonuses has forced foreign banks operating in India to change the way they pay their employees.

At least two of them, Citibank NA and Bank of America Corp., have increased basic salary of staff by adding part of the bonus component to the salary. For instance, if an employee was getting Rs100 as bonus, Rs50 is now added to the base salary and Rs50 is being given as variable pay, disbursed in stocks and cash over a period of time.

There has been an outcry across the world at the huge salaries and bonuses paid to bankers-widely seen as the professionals responsible for the financial crisis of 2008 that set off a global economic meltdown.

Even though the banking system in India was largely unaffected by the global slowdown and there has been no problem in terms of liquidity and capital, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had articulated its desire to set guidelines for salaries of private and foreign banks in its second quarter review of the monetary policy for 2009-10.

Foreign banks in India account for a little less than 7% of banking assets, but have a huge talent pool. Many senior bankers in Indian private sector banks have worked with foreign lenders. The salaries and wages of employees of public sector banks, which account for 70% of banking assets, are governed by an industry-wide wage pact.

“Any salary adjustments are not intended to increase total annual compensation, rather to adjust the balance between fixed and variable compensation,” a Citi spokesperson said in an emailed response.

A Bank of America spokesperson declined to comment.

Most of the foreign banks, including Citibank and Bank of America, have announced a salary increase in the range of 15-30% for 2010.

While Mint could not ascertain the salary hike at Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. Ltd, one of the leading foreign banks in India, JPMorgan Chase and Co. has announced a 70% increase in salary. The JPMorgan spokesperson did not offer any comment.

Standard Chartered Bank and Deutsche Bank AG are expected to announce a 30% pay hike.

A Standard Chartered Bank official, who declined to be named, said the annual salary revision will happen in March and there will not be any restructuring in the compensation package.

“The salary increases are in the range of 10-30%, depending on the seniority and positions of employees,” a Citibank executive said on condition of anonymity.

RBI has also sought information from banks on how they decided the salaries and bonuses of people heading the treasury department-a key division responsible for generating a significant portion of a bank’s profits.

“Bonus attracts attention of the media and politicians. Hence, these banks have increased the base salary of employees,” said the chief executive of a human resource firm, who declined to be named as his firm places employees at foreign banks. “However, this will increase the cost for banks as when the basic salary goes up, the cost of pension and other contributory benefits rise.”

“They also have to retain and attract talent in India, which is a growing market and a major contributor to the banks’ profits. The foreign banks are following a middle path in a tough regulatory environment,” he added.

RBI is working in consonance with standards defined by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) on compensation. FSB, consisting of senior representatives of national financial authorities such as central banks, regulatory and supervisory authorities and finance ministries, among others, was established in April to address vulnerabilities, and develop and implement strong regulatory and supervisory policies to maintain financial stability.

FSB principles on compensation, which have been endorsed by the Group of Twenty countries, have proposed that bonuses and incentives be paid over a period of time.

Source : Article of Ms Anita Bhoir published in livemint.com.

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Manipur government issued the implementation of the 6th Pay Commission

2010-01-31T22:57:00.000-08:00

Rejecting the blanket order issued by the government over the implementation of the 6th Pay Commission recommendation in state, the JAC of AMTUC and AMGEO has questioned the intention of the government for its reluctance in paying the arrear of the employees while the amount for the same has been demanded from the 13th Finance Commission.

A statement issued today by the publicity and information secretary of the JAC, L Priyobratta pointed out that the state government has demanded allocation of more fund to the 13th Finance Commission citing that the implementation of 6th Pay recommendation to employees and pensioners of the state government would be effected from 1-1-2006 .

The government has proposed to the 13th Finance Commission that Rs 1,447 crore arrear for employees and pensioners of the state for the period from 2006 to 2010 would be paid in two installments.

80% of the arrear will be paid in 2010-11 while the remaining 60% will be paid in 2011-12, according to the statement.

The JAC statement questioned why the government is now issuing an order not to pay the arrears to employees and pensioners.

It added that the government had constituted a Committee of Officers with the then Chief Secretary as the chairman on October 1, 2008 to oversee the implementation of the 6th Pay Commission recommendation.

As per the terms of reference, the committee was to submit its reports within four months.

After prolonged cover up of the committee’s report, the government has on January 16 issued an order saying that the 6th Pay Commission recommendation would be implemented as per the report of the Committee of Officers.

It stated that the government has failed to make a copy of the recommendations of the Committee of Officers available to the JAC representatives during the meeting held between the two parties.

The JAC representatives were only told that the period of the committee has been extended.

The JAC expressed doubts over the move of the government.

The JAC statement further appealed to all employees and pensioners to participate in the mass silent rally to be held on February 4 .

Source: Hueiyen News Service and E PAO.

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Andhra Pradesh Cabinet gave in principle approval for the implementation

2010-01-31T22:55:00.000-08:00

The Andhra Pradesh Cabinet today gave in principle approval for the implementation of University Grants Commission (UGC) revised pay scales 2006, with effect from January 1, 2006.

The Cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister K Rosaiah, took the decision to benefit teachers in university colleges and eligible teachers in government and aided degree colleges in the state, Information Minister J Geeta Reddy told reporters in a post-cabinet meeting briefing.

The total financial implication towards payment of arrears up to March 31, 2010 would be Rs 1,080 crore, of which Rs 864 crore would be borne by the Centre and the remaining by the state government. The annual recurring expenditure of about Rs 330 crore would be borne entirely by the state government, she said.

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Agenda Points for 46th Meeting of National Council from BPMS Member

2010-01-26T23:03:00.000-08:00

Agenda Points for 46th Meeting of National Council (JCM) from BPMS Member, National Council (JCM) Mr.M.P.SINGH.

Kindly refer your D.O. No. 3/2/2009-JCA Dated 30th Nov, 2009 whereby it has been intimated that the 46th meeting of the National council (JCM) is scheduled to be held on 16th January, 2010 under the Chairmanship of Hon`ble Cabinet Secretary.

{The proposed meeting mentioned earlier did not take place on 16th Jan and likely to be held in the first week of February}

In this meeting, I would like to submit following points on behalf of my federation BPMS, which needs the attention of the meeting for the welfare of the employees.

1. DISPARITY IN THE FORMATION OF PAY BAND / SCALES

Central Govt. Employees as well as Federations were confident that a similar Pattern would be adopted by the 6th CPC and Review Committee, in the formation, of Pay Scales, irrespective of the Cadre of workers and Officers. After thorough study of the Pay Structure, it is observed that the structure of Pay bands of PB-1 to PB-4 has been formulated with multiplying factor. But it is found that this factor has not been applied in all the Pay bands uniformly.

The Multiplying factor from PB- 1 to PB- 3 is found to be 1.86 (Approx) and for PB-4 it comes to 2.61 (Approx). This disparity has increased the Min. & Max Ration in the Pay Scales of the lowest employees and the highest, officer. This has created great resentment among the workers. It is a great un-justification with the Central Govt. employees.

This Federation strongly demands that this disparity should be removed to console the Central Govt. employees and a multiplying factor of 2.61(Approx) should also be applied for Pay Band PB- 1, PB-2 & PB-3.

2. ASSURED CAREER PROGRESSION (ACP) SCHEME

It is submitted that the Govt. of India has introduced the ACP scheme vide OM. No.35034/1/97- Estt (D) Dated 09.08.1999 on the recommendation of Fifth Central Pay commission to provide ‘Safety Net’ to deal with the problem of genuine stagnation and hardship faced by the employees duet to lack of adequate promotional avenues. As per instructions, the Government employees are granted financial upgradations after completion of 12 & 24 years of regular service and the mobility under acpS are to be allowed in the ‘existing hierarchy’. Since the benefits of upgradation under ACPS are to be allowed in the existing hierarchy, the mobility under ACPS shall be in the hierarchy existing after merger of pay scales by ignoring promotions. For granting financial upgradation, if such cadre/hierarchy exists in the Ministry/Department concerned, the upgradation

maybe allowed in keeping with the pay scale of an analogous grade of a cadre/post in the same Ministry/Department. However, if no such grade exists in the Ministry/Department concerned, comparison may be made with an analogous available in other Ministries / Departments.

Further your kind attention is invited to the Resolution published in Gazette of India on 29th August 2008 which also deals with recommendations of Sixth Central Pay Commission on Assured Career Progression Scheme and the para 1. says that the Government employee will be granted 03 financial upgradations after completion of 10, 20 & 30 years of service and para. (iii) accepted by Govt. of India reads as under:-

“(iii) The grade pay shall change at the time of financial upgradation under this scheme (MACPS). The grade pay given at the time of financial upgradaion under MACPS will be the immediate next higher grade pay in the hierarchy of revised pay bands and grade pay being recommend. Thus, grade pay at the time of financial upgradation under ACPS can, in certain cases where regular promotion is not between two successive grades, be different than what is available at the time of regular promotion. In such case, the higher grade pay attached to the next promotion post in the hierarchy of the concerned cadre/organixation will be given only at the time of regular promotion.”

In such circumstances, the wish of the Govt. of India to grant 03 financial upgradation for betterment of its employees in thirty years service span will not be culminated through MACP Scheme as it is disadvantageous in comparison to erstwhile ACP Scheme particularly for the employees in Pay Band -1 as the MACPS will grant different Grade Pay to the employees of same cadre and post.

Therefore you are kindly requested to issue necessary instructions whereby the granting of benefits of ACP in vogue may be continued with modification that 03 financial upgradation will be granted on completion of 10, 20 & 30 years in the such cadre/hierarchy exists in the Ministry/Department and if no such grade exists in the Ministry/Department concerned, comparison may be made with an analogous grade available in other Ministries/Departments.

3. PROMOTIONAL BENEFITS

It is observed that there will be a very small / meager financial benefit to a Group ‘C’ Employees on his promotion. Group ‘C’ employees in the Pay Band of Rs.5200 - 20200 when promoted after a service of five years then at the time of his promotion his basis pay would be Rs.6040 (Approx). On his promotion he will get a benefit of one increment of 3% i.e. Rs.180 and additional Grade Pay of Rs.100 only, thus total financial benefit comes to Rs.280, which is a very meager amount when compared with the employees of PB-2 & PB-3 Pay Band.

It is worth to mention here that two additional increments to be granted at the time of promotion to officers of Indian Administrative Services as per Resolution issued by MoF on 29th August, 2008.

Considering the above this federation demands that two increments or a minimum of Rs.1000, whichever will be higher, should be enhanced in the Basic Pay of the Minimum paid employee.

4. INCREMENTAL BENEFIT

Your attention is invited to the para 2 (iii) of the letter No. G.O.I. MF., DoE, (Implementation Cell), F.No.1/1/2008-IC Dt. 30.08.2008 on the subject matter, which deals with granting the next increment in the revised pay structure is as under:-

“In terms of the CCS(RP)Rules, 2008, there shall be uniform date of increment i.e.1st July of the year after implementation of the revised pay structure. Consequently, will be drawn in the pre-revised scale and pay fixed in accordance with the tables after including this increment. The next increment in the revised pay structure in such cases will be drawn on 1st July, 2006.”

Further Rule 10 of CCS (RP) Rules, 2008 is an under:-

“….. Employees completing 06 months and above in the revised pay structure as on 1st July will be eligible to be granted the next increment. The first increment after fixation of pay on 01.01.2006 in the revised pay structure will be granted on 1.7.2006 for those employees for whom the date of next increment was between 1st July, 2006 to 1st January, 2007.”

The above is creating dilemma whether the employees whose date of next increment falls between 01st Feb, 2006 and 01stJune, 2006 will also be eligible to be granted their next increment on 01st Jan, 2006. If not, they will be eligible to be granted their next increment on 01st July, 2006 and this will violate the provisions of F.R.26 which confers the right to be granted next increment on completion of 12 months and as per FR 24 as increment shall ordinarily be drawn as a matter of course unless it is withheld.

Therefore you are kindly requested to remove the anomaly so that the employee may be granted the next increment on 1st January to whom those were drawing their increment between July to December of the year.

5. MERGER OF PAY SCALE OF Rs.3050 - 4590 with Rs.3200 - 4900 and Rs.4000 - 6000 with Rs.4500 - 7000

The industrial workers are being recruited in the Semi-Skilled grade against the sanctioned post of Skilled grade in the pay scale of Rs.3050-4590. Such employees have the educational qualification of Matriculation with Science & Mathematics plus they have to undergo training for 03 or 04 years as per Trade Apprentice Act. It seems injustice to grant the pay scale of Rs. 3050 - 4590 to the Skilled employees as they have to perform the highly sensitive operations on the CNC machines, metallurgical operation, work on optical and electronics equipments, chemical process with hazardous operation.

The pay scale of Ministerial Category i.e. Clerks and Store Keepers should be revised. At present the Pay Scale of LDC (Lower Divisional Clerk) & Store Keepers have been equated with cooks, L.H.Fireman and Drivers, causing thereby demoralization in this category. This category is performing sophisticated, Tedious & highly complicated and sensitive jobs i.e. Recruitments, Posting / Transfers, DPC, Defending Court Cases. Parliament Questions, Welfare, Labour Relation Work, Financial Implications viz. GPF A/c’s maintaining records of Advances, Pension / Retirement Terminal Benefits, Facing Audit Objections, Procurements , Preservations, Control on Material Movement, keep safe the inventories etc. etc. On the same analogy, the incumbents like Highly Skilled trades man, UDC, Supervisors (Non - Tech.) & equivalent are also eligible to be granted the higher pay scale of Rs. 4500 - 7000 from Rs.4000 - 6000 due to their job responsibilities.

It is urged to merge the pay scale of Rs. 3050 - 4590 with Rs.3200 - 4900 and the pay scale of Rs. 4000 - 6000 with Rs.4500 - 7000 in the pre-revised with grade pay of Rs.2000 & Rs.2800 respectively.

6. UPGRADATION FROM PROPECTIVE DATE

After perusal of the Gazette Notification it is found that under Part B section sub para it is very clearly mentioned that the pre-revised pay scales of Rs.5000 - 8000, Rs.5500 - 9000 and Rs.6500 - 10500 which presently constitute feeder and promotion Grades will come to lie in an identical grade. With the provision given in the Gazette, the posts in the scale of Rs.5000 - 8000 and Rs.5500 - 9000 should be merged, with the post in the of Rs.6500 - 10500, being upgraded to the next higher grade in pay band-2 i.e. to the grade pay of Rs.4600 corresponding to the pre-revised pay scale of Rs.7450 - 11500, the post upgraded from the scale of Rs.6500 - 10500 should be merged with the post in the pay scale of Rs.7450 - 11500.

Further it is mentioned under sub-para-(iii) of section I that ‘posts in the scale of Rs.6500-10500 Carrying minimum qualification of either Degree n Engineering or a Degree in Law should also be upgraded in the pays scale of Rs.7450 - 11500 corresponding to the revised pay band of Rs.9300-34800 along with grade pay of Rs.4600. It has very specifically been mentioned that ‘post of scientific staff in the scale of Rs.6500-10500 Carrying minimum qualification of Engineering Degree or a post Graduate Degree should also be upgraded and placed in the pay scale of Rs.7450-11500 corresponding to the revised pay band PB-2 of Rs.9300-34800 along with grade pay of Rs.4600. The Gazette Notification has ordered the effectiveness of the revised pay scales along with financial benefits w.e.f.1.1.2006, but lately on the contrary MoD vide its I.D. No.11(1)/2008-D(Civ.l) dated 10th Sept. under Para 2. has ordered that such upgraded Scales will be effective from a Prospective date.

It is submitted that when all the recommendations of the CPC has been agreed from 1.1.2006 then why a small group of employees should be deviated from this advantage. As such this federation demands that the upgraded scales should also be affective from 1.1.2006. This will give benefits to the employees of EME & DGOS.

7. MERGER OF PAY SCALE OF 7450-11500 & 7500-12000 OF GROUP ‘B’ GAZETTED

it is submitted that the nature of work and responsibilities of JTO (S) and JSO in DGOA & in other Defence Departments is almost same and similar. The pay scale of JTO (S) is Rs.7450-11500 and of JSO is Rs.7500-12000. (Both Group-B Officers), the difference in their pay scale is marginally of Rs.50only. It takes more than four years for JTO (S) to get promotion to JSO, which gives negligible financial gain. Further the grade pay of JTO (S) with pay scale of Rs.7500-12000 is Rs.4600 & Rs.4800 respectively. Both are Group B Gazetted Officer and doing the same nature of work. As per the recommendations of 6th, JSO with grade pay of Rs.4800 get into the grade pay of Rs.5400 after completion of four years of service in that post (refer para 3.1.14 of the report) whereas an other officer doing the same nature of work with similar responsibility has to wait for eight years to get into Rs.5400 pay band. It is a great anomaly and may be sorted out to remove resentment in the affected officers.

This Federation demands that the Cadres of JTO(S) & similar cadre should be merged into JSO cadre in the pre-revised pay scale of Rs.7500 - 12000 and both of them should be given the same grade pay of Rs.4800 and promotional benefit after completing their four years of service in this cadre.

It is observed that in different Organizations / Departments the revised pay scales of the staff & officers working in the pay scale of Rs.6500 - 10500 has been upgraded to the Pre-revised pay scale of Rs.7500-12000 having less qualification & responsibility than the Scientific / Technical staff of DGQA, working in the pay scale of Rs.6500-10500.

For example:

a) The employee in the pre-revised pay scale of Rs.6500-10500 carrying minimum qualification of engineering degree has been upgraded to the Pre-revised pay scale of Rs.7450-11500 with grade pay of Rs.4600 whereas a Section Officer / PS / Equivalent in the revised pay scale of Rs.6500-10500 has been upgraded to the pay scale of Rs.7500-1200 with grade pay of Rs.4800. The section officer / PS of secretariat will get the next higher grade pay of Rs.5400 after four years of service in that grade (Refer para 3.8.12) whereas the officer of other organization will have to wait minimum for eight years to get that grade pay. First minimum four years to get promotion for grade pay of Rs.4800 then after four years to gain grade pay of Rs.5400.

b) Asst. Nursing Superintendent in the revised pay scale of Rs.6500-10500 has been upgraded to the pay scale of Rs.8000-13500 (Refer para 3.8.15) is still bearing less qualification & responsibilities of Graduate Engineer working in work shops / Quality Assurance / Research work in defence organizations.

c) The Primary School Teachers / Trained Graduate Teachers / Post graduate teachers in the pay scale of Rs.6500-10500 has been upgraded to the pre-revised pay scale of Rs.7500-12000 with grade pay of Rs.4800 whereas they have minimum responsibility, less working hours and more leaves in a year.

d) Removal of anomaly in the pay scale of Junior Work Manager in OFB

Junior Works Managers are the main pillars of this organization still they are deprived of their legitimate rights. Considering their responsibilities and duties, the pay scale of JWM may be upgraded to the pre-revised pay scale of Rs.7500-12000 to the revised pay band -2 (Rs.9300-34800) with grade pay of Rs.4800 and after completion of four years of service in the grade, they will be placed in the PB-3 (15600-39100) with the grade pay of Rs.5400 as it is stipulated in para. 1(x(a) to (e) of resolution, bearing No.1/1/2008-I.C. dated 29.08.2008 of Ministry of Finance (Department of Expenditure) for group ‘B’ cadres of DANICS, CSS, CSSS, IA & AD and group ‘B’ officers of Ministry of Railways and Departments of Posts, Revenue etc.

Similar self explanatory examples are elaborated in Para 7.6.18; 7.8.10; 7.10.26; 7.19.51 & 7.19.68 etc. of the Gazette Notifications / CPC Report.

This Federation strongly demands that this disparity should be removed and similar advantage should be extended to all deserving employees of Departments of MOD viz. DGQA, DGAQA, DRDO, Naval etc. considering their qualification, Responsibility and nature of duties.

DISPARITY IN THE PAY OF DIRECT RECRUITEE & PROMOTEE SHOULD BE REMOVED

It is observed that a promotee with a bundle of Departmental experience gets less enumeration than a recruit appointed on direct recruitment in different cadres. Kindly refer section II of para -A of the Notification where entry pay in the revised pay structure for direct recruits appointed on or after 1.1.2006 is mentioned.

To illustrate, if an employee drawing basic pay Rs.3200 in the pre-revised pay scale of Rs.3050-4590 is fixed on the basic pay of Rs.6060+1900 = 7960 in the revised pay scale of PB-1(5200-20200) on 1.1.2006. Later, if he is promoted to the pre-revised pay scale of Rs.4000-6000 his pay will be fixed at Rs.6300+2400 = 8700 as per para 13 of the CSS (Revised Pay) Rules,2008.

On the same day, if another employee is directly recruited in the pay scale of Rs.4000-6000 (pre-revised), his pay will be Rs.7510+2400=9910 in the revised pay scale of PB-1 Rs.5200-20200 as per section II of part A of the first schedule of these rules. Thus, directly recruited employee will get Rs.1210 (i.e. 9910 - 8700 = 1210) more in comparison to the promoted employee. It is great anomaly and may be removed to avoid disappointment among the staff.

This federation demands that necessary amendments may pleas be carried out, so that the pay of the promoted employee may be fixed higher than the entry pay for the direct recruits appointed on after 1.1.2006.

9. RISK ALLOWANCE, HOSPITAL PATIENT CARE ALLOWANCE SHOULD BE CONTINUED

The risk allowance is paid to all those engaged in duties involving greater hazards or whose health is liable to be adversely affected progressively over a long period of time because of the particular avocation. The second pay commission recommended that certain unskilled staff employed in the Ministry of Defence and Railways, whose work was exceptionally heavy or whose normal duties involved special risk such as those of chemical process was also extended to sweepers working in underground sewers and in infectious hospitals in the name of Patient Care Allowance and or Hospital Patient Care Allowance. On the recommendation of 3rd CPC, a committee was constituted to examine the facilities of rationalizing nature, which classified the beneficiaries of Risk Allowance into four categories namely: Semi Skilled, Skilled Workers, Supervisors and certain Gazetted and non Gazetted officers. The 4th CPC recommended a hundred per cent increase in the cover in cases where employees like custom inspectors, Railway Drivers, Guards, Income Tax officers and staff carrying out raids, are exposed to risks. The 5th CPC concluded that risk and continuous risks. Contingent risks relate to one time events where event is uncertain and that may be considered for insurance cover or ex-gratia payment. Continuous in the occupation itself with adverse effect on the health and the employee will be paid the risk allowance with the revised rates.

The 6th CPC was also partially agreed that Risk Allowance is only justified for jobs which are inherently risky with adverse effect on health but recommended that the Government should insure that latest technology and greatest level of care is observed in these jobs so that the element of risk involved therein minimized. In this context, it should be kept in views that technological upgradation cannot zero the continuous risk but in can minimize the risk only due to nature of specific job or process. Hence, the risk insurance scheme cannot provide any relief in case of continuous risk.

Therefore, this Federation demands that the Risk Allowance, Patient Care Allowance, Hospital Patient Care Allowance should be continued and even the amount of the risk allowance should be doubled as the 6th CPC has doubled all the allowance payable to Government employees.

This Federation does appreciate the provision for free medical and insurance for those employees, but it should be in addition to Risk Allowance.

10. CHILD CARE LEAVE

6th CPC has recommended Child Care Leave for women employees having minor children for a maximum period of two years 730 days during their entire service for taking care of up to two children. This leave s admissible up to the age of 18 years of her child. This Federation welcomes this scheme, it will help the mothers to built better career of their child.

This Federation submits that there may be a case/instance when the wife of the Central govt. employee expires at the time of delivery or at time when her child is less than 18 years of age. In that case the father of the child should be entitled for all that child care leave benefits for which a Central govt. women employee is entitled. Such cases happen very rare, but there must be a similar provision for Central Govt. male employees so that a proper care could be given to their child.

Further, child care leave and enhanced maternity leave should be granted to Industrial Employees as it is being to the female employees governed by the existing provisions of the Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules,1972.

11. NIGHT DUTY ALLOWANCE (NDA)

6th CPC vide their Sub para 4.2.81 has recommended to double the allowances including Night Duty Allowance, which is not as per rules of Night Duty Allowance (NDA). NDA has ever been calculated with a given formula. This Federation demands that for the calculation of NDA the same formula should be adopted with inclusion of Transport Allowance in place of CCA.

Formula:-

Basic Pay + DA + TA

Night Duty Allowance = --------

195 x 6

12. RECRUITMENT OF TRADE APPRENTICES

The grade of unskilled and semi-skilled has been merged as per recommendation of 6th CPC 3.8.27. In such circumstances, ex-trade apprentices (NCVT / ITI passed) should be directly recruited in the grade of skilled in the pay scale of Rs.5200-20200 + Grade Pay of Rs.1900) instead of Semi-Skilled grade.

13. PAY SCALE OF Sr. DATA ENTRY OPREATOR

Head clerk / Assistants / Steno Gr.II / Equivalent in the pay scale of Rs.4500-7000 and Rs.5000-8000 are upgraded to the revised pay scale of Rs.6500-10500 in the PB-II with a grade pay of Rs.4200. Accordingly Sr.Data Entry Operator who are in the existing pay scale of Rs.4500-7000 should be covered by such upgradation.

It is learnt that the same benefit has been granted in DRDO vide their letter No. DHRD/16342/VI CPC/1/C/M/01 dated 7.10.2008.

14. DISPARITY IN LEAVE TRAVEL CONCESSION

Prior to implementation of 6th CPC the benefit of availing LTC was uniform among the employees, but the anomaly has been created by implementing the 6th CPC and some segment (newly recruited) of employees will enjoy the benefits of LTC every year, but others shall loose the same benefits.

It is therefore submitting that suitable provisions in the rules may be obtained to clear this disparity by providing LTC to the employees every year as every employee and his family desires to visit at his Home Town yearly.

15. DATE OF NEXT INCREMENT IN EXTRA ORDINARY LEAVE CASES

Your attention is invited to DOP&T U.O No. 13/1/2009-pay I dated 20/02/2009 on the subject matter wherein it is stipulated “…. Qualifying service of less than 06 months rendered between 1st January and 30th June of any year on account of EOL will have the effect of postponing one’s increment to1st July of next year ,if all other conditions are met.”, whereas the Rule 10 of the Civilians in Defence Services [Revised Pay] Rules,2008 issued by MOD F>No.11[1]/2008/D[Civ-I] dated 09th Sep,2008 says that the employees completing 6 months and above in the revised pay structure as on1st July will be eligible to be granted the increment.

It is crystal clear from Rule 10 above that if an employee completes 06 months or more between 01st July,2006 to 30th June,2007 and he takes EOL of 02 months for personal affairs [without medical certificate] between 01.01.2007 to30.06.2007, he will be granted his next increment on 1.7.2007 (not on 1.7.2008). Such types of examples are published in the Swamysnews.

Therefore you are kindly requested to amend the DOP&T letter dated 20.2.2009 and issue clarification so that the employees may be granted their next increment on their legitimate due date.

16. ENHANCEMENT OF BENEFITS OF CENTRAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES GROUP INSURANCE SHCEME

The Central Government Employees Group Insurance Scheme was introduced in Jan 1982 to provide insurance cover to the employees so as to enable their families to get a lump sum amount in the event of employees death. The scheme also envisages a lump sum payment on cessation of employment. The scheme is wholly contributed and is run on self different groups. Subscription under the scheme is appointed between the insurance fund and the saving fund in the ratio of 30:70. The rates of monthly subscription as well as the insurance cover are supposed to be revised periodically.

The present rates of subscription and insurance cover for the different categories of employees are Rs.15 and Rs.15000 respectively for the lowest category of government employees since Jan. 1990 (i.e. due to implementation of 4th CPC recommendations).

Thereafter, the 5th CPC, taking in account the erosion in the real value of rupee recommending daubing of the rates of monthly subscription, as well as the insurance cover available under the scheme has become totally inadequate and an amount of Rs.15000 cannot provide financial support to the family of a diseased group ‘D’ employees. When the rates of subscription and the insurance cover under this scheme were last revised in 1990, the pay scales recommended by 4th CPC were in vogue and the minimum salary was Rs.750.

Now the minimum salary of Government employees is Rs.7000 as recommended by 6th CPC. The increase in the minimum salary between 1.1.1990 and the date of implementation i.e. 1.1.2006, of the pay scales works out to be more than nine times. However, the 6th CPC has recommended that monthly subscription should be Rs.180 and the amount of insurance will be Rs.180000

To restore the actual value of insurance cover provided under the scheme, this federation demands that the present amount for various categories should be enhanced to rupees two lakh as a minimum payment to the lowest cadre.

17. DEFINE THE MEANING OF “ORDINARY RATE OF WAGES” UNDER THE FACTORIES ACT, 1948

This reflects the concern of the employees working in Indian Ordnance Factories under Ministry of Defence, over the interpretation of ‘Ordinary rate of wages’ under Rule 59 of the Factories Act, 1948 issued by Ministry of Labour and Employment vide their O.M. No. Z 16025/81/2007 - ISH - II dated 27.05.2009 wherein it has opined that the allowance of compensatory nature (HRA / Transport Allowance / Small Allowance etc.,) may be excluded for the purpose of computing Overtime Allowance under the Factories Act, 1948. Earlier, Ministry of Labour and Employment vide their O.M. No. Z - 16025/81/2007 - ISH - II dated 19.11.2007 has compensatory allowance which is reimbursed and hence may not be taken into account calculating OTA under the Factories Act, 1948.

The above interpretation of the Ministry of Labour is contrary to the provisions of Factories Act, 1948. As per section 59 of Factories Act, a worker shall be entitled to wages at the rate of twice of his ordinary rate of wages, in respect of Overtime work as per Sub Section (2) of section 59 the ‘Ordinary rate of wages’ means the basic wages plus such allowances. Including the cash equivalent of the advantage accruing through the concessional rate to workers of food grains and other articles, as the worker is for the time being entitled to but does not include a bonus and wages for overtime work.

Presently Dearness Allowance, House Rent Allowance, City Compensatory Allowance and Transport Allowance are included for the purpose of calculating Overtime Allowance under Factories Act, 1948 and the employees are being paid accordingly.

“Dearness Allowance” which is being paid at present is in the nature of a compensatory payment to employees for erosion in the real value of their salaries resulting from price rise. (Para 13.1; Page 216 of 4th CPC Report)

“City Compensatory Allowance” is granted to Central Government employees to enable them to meet the high cost of living in certain specially costly cities.

(Para 106.2; Page 1579 of 5th CPC Report)

“House Rent Allowance” is paid to Central Government employees to compensate them partly for the specially high rents which they have to pay for hired residential accommodation. (Para 14.21; Page 225 of 4th CPC Report)

“Transport Allowance” has been granted to Central Government employees to suitably compensate them for the cost incurred on account of commuting between the place of residence and the place of duty.

(G.I. M.F., O.M. No.21(1)97/E-II (B), dated 03.10.1997)

From above it is abundantly clear that allowances like DA, CCA, HRA and TA being paid to Central Government employees are compensatory in nature and there is no justification in discriminating among the above allowances.

It is worth to mention here that the Ministry of Labour is a custodian of rights conference by the Parliament of India to the employees under various Labour Laws but now it has wrongly interpreted the meaning of the ordinary rate of wages means the basic wages plus such allowance such the worker is for the time being entitled. Due to this the employees are deprived of the extra wages for overtime, which they are getting for more than last 50 years.

Therefore you are requested to take appropriate action so that the provision of payment of Overtime may be continued in letter and spirit of Factories Act, 1948 and the House Rent Allowance, Transport Allowance should not be excluded for the purpose of calculating extra wages for overtime under the Factories Act, 1948.

18. COMPASSIONATE APPOINTMENTS IN FATAL ACCIDENT CASE

Your attention is invited to the situation where a Government servant who is the sole breadwinner of a family unfortunately dies in harness leaving his family in immediate need of assistance in such cases, Ministries / Departments have been delegated the power to appoint n relaxation of procedure of recruitment to a dependent member of the family of the deceased, in the event of there being no other earning member in the family.

For this purpose, Ordnance Factory Board has forwarded the MOD, D(Lab) instruction vide OFY letter No. 039/(6)/A/A/(Vol-III) dated 18.1.2006, whereby directives have been issued ofr making relative merit points scale to various parameters like Family Pension, Terminal Benefits, Monthly income of earning members and income from property, Movable/immovable property. No.of Dependents, No.of unmarried daughters, No. of minor children and left over service. The weightage fixed above is to be strictly followed.

Sir, very painfully it is brought to your kind notice that no weightage has been given to the death in fatal accident in the process of performing his duty. We have experienced that a number of Ordnance Factories are engaged in manufacturing, filling ;process of Highly Explosives and during the above process some major fatal accidents occurred causing loss of several employees like Ordnance Factory Bhandara, Itarasi and Khamaria where employees have succumbed to the accidents but their dependents are waiting for extra weightage to the Department/Ministry/Nation which needs to be considered while assessing the wieghtage for compassionate appointments. In spite of that MOD has clarified vide its I.D dated 4.8.2008 as under:

“Since the financial impact of the family due to demise of the Government servant for whatever cause (accident or otherwise) is similar, the cases of accident victims cannot be taken on a different footing and may be regulated under the scheme for compassionate appointment as circulated vied this Department’s O.M. dated 9th Oct, 1998.

In the above circumstances, you are requested to intervene into the matter and kindly issue necessary directions so that top priority may be given to the next of kin to the deceased employees for granting him immediate compassionate appointment without considering the weightage whereby it may be proved that MOD, GOI as always caring the family of the employee who have sacrificed his life of the Government.

19. HALF DAYS’ CASUAL LEAVE TO INDUSTRIAL EMPLOYEES AT PAR WITH THE OTHER CENTRAL GOVT. EMPLOYEES

The Government of India has kindly pleased to grant Half Day Causal Leave to the employees for various reasons mentioned in the G.I., M.H.A., O.M. No. 60/17/64-Esst. (A) dated 4.8.1965. It is worth to mention here that the above does not discriminate among the Industrial Employees and Non-Industrial Employees but the rule is published only in the Appendix -III under Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 1972.

Therefore you are requested to issue necessary instructions so that half days causal leave to the Industrial employees may be granted at par with the other CG employees, and present system of short leave of 2 hours on 2 occasions in a month may be continued but without pay.

20. REMOVAL OF LEAVE DISPARITY AMONG THE FACTORIES ACT, 1948 AND DEPARTEMNTAL RULES

It is apprised that the ‘Principal Controller of Accounts (Factories), Kolkata vide its letter No. pay/Tech - II/ 1058 dated 27.3.2007 has instructed to all Branch Accounts Officers of Ordnance & Ord. Equipment Factories that the Industrial employees who has opted to be governed by CDS(IEs) Leave Rules, 1954 is entitled to 30 days Earned Leave and those who have opted for Factories Act are entitled to one EL for every 20 days of work in the preceding year.

Kindly refer to GOI, DoP&T O.M. No. 12012/1/97-Esst (Leave) dated 20 July, 1998 wherein it is stipulated that as per agreement with the Staff Side of the National Council (JCM) singed on 11.9.1997, the Govt. has decided that henceforth the Industrial employees in CG Departments other than Railways shall be entitled year of service irrespective of service holidays shall also count towards such leave.

Chapter - VIII of the Factories Act, 1948 deals with Annual Leave with wages and Section 78 of the Act reads as under:

(i) The provision of this chapter shall not operate to the prejudice of any right to which a worker may be entitled under any other law or under the terms of any award, agreement (including settlement) or contract of service: Provided that if such award, agreement (including settlement) or contract of service provides for a longer Annual Leave with Wages than provided in this chapter, the quantum of leave, which the worker shall be entitled to, shall be in accordance with such award, agreement or contract of service, but in relation to matters not provided for a in such award, agreement or contrast of service or matters not provided for less favorably therein, the provisions of Section 79 to 82, so for as may be, shall apply.

From above it may be deduced that the Industrial employees who have opted for Earned Leave under Factories Act, are entitled for 30 days in a year and the matter to remove disparity of leave among Factory Rules and Department Rules for industrial employees is pending for very long period.

21. CHILDREN EDUCATION ALLOWANCE

DOP&T has issued clarification vide OM No. 1201111612009 - (Allowance) dated 13th Nov. 2009 that CEA is admissible for the two eldest surviving children only, expect when the number of children exceeds two due to second child birth resulting in multiple births.

It is worth to mention here that neither 6th CPC has restricted that the only first 02 eldest surviving children’s education allowance will be reimbursed not DOP&T has restricted vide instruction OM NO. 12011/03/2008 - Estt.(Allowance) dated 2nd Oct. 2008.

In such circumstances, kindly issue necessary instructions for granting the CEA to the employees for his/her 3rd or 4th son/daughter if he has not claimed the Tuition Fee reimbursement for his son/daughter on any earlier occasions.

22. REMOVAL OF ANOMALY IN THE PAY SCALE OF LAB.TECHNICIANS SERVING IN ORDNANCE FACTORIES HOSPITALS IN PB-2 WITH GRADE PAY OF Rs.4200 LIKE OTHER CENTRAL GOVT. DEPTT. i.e. RAILWAY RECRUITMENT BOARD INSTEAD OF PB-1 (Rs.5200-20200) WITH GRADE PAY OF Rs.2800.

Lab Technicians serving in Ordnance Factory Hospitals under Min. of Defence have been ordered to be placed in PB-1 (Rs.5200-20200) with Grade Pay of Rs.2800 due to their corresponding 5th CPC scales of Rs.4500-7000.Organisation/Post Pay Scale(Pre-revised) Qualification Nature of Work
Ordnance Factory Hospitals Lab.Technician Rs.4500-125-7000 (i) BSc with Bio-Chemistry/Micro Biology

(ii) Diploma in MLT

(iii) 01 year experience Routine Blodd Test of Pathology, Micro-Biology, Bio-Chemistry etc.
Regional Institute of Health & Medical Science Shilong Sr.Lab.Technician Rs.5500-175-9000 (i) BSc with Medical Lab.Technology or

(ii) BSc with Phy/Chem/Zool/Bot from a recognised university with Diploma in MLT of 1 year duration. Routine Blodd Test of Pathology, Micro-Biology, Bio-Chemistry etc.
Bhabha Automic Research Centre. Scientific Asst.B(Pathology) Rs.5500-175-9000 BSc + 01 year Diploma in MLT with 50% in BSc and 60% in DMLT Routine Blodd Test of Pathology, Micro-Biology, Bio-Chemistry etc.
J.N.Medical College, AMU Sr.Tehcnical Asst. Rs.5500-175-9000 (i)BSc

(ii)Diploma in MLT

(iii)02 years experience Routine Blodd Test of Pathology, Micro-Biology, Bio-Chemistry etc.
Railway Recruitment Board Lab.Superintendent Gr-III Rs.5000-150-9000 (i)BSc with Bio-Chemistry/Micro-Biology

(ii)Diploma in MLT Routine Blodd Test of Pathology, Micro-Biology, Bio-Chemistry etc.
Rastriya Sanchari Rogsansthan Technician Rs.5500-150-8000 BSc with Bio-Chemistry/Micro-Biology Routine Blodd Test of Pathology, Micro-Biology, Bio-Chemistry etc.

As per description given Lab Technician (designated as Lab. Superintendent Gr-III in the other central government department exists in the pay scale of Rs.5000-8000, Rs.5500-9000 and Rs.6500-10500. It means that Lab Technician (Lab. Superintendent) should be in the scale of Pay of Rs.5000-8000 minimum. The below scale of Rs.4500-7000 was meant for Lab. Asst. and not for Lab. Technician. This anomaly should have been set right prior to 6th CPC, but it is painful that nothing was done in this regard.

Following list of other CG Departments clearly exhibit that Lab. Technician with entry qualification B.Sc + Diploma are getting the 5th CPC scale of Rs.5000-8000 whereas in Ordnance Factory Board organization. Lab. Technician inspite of having the same entry qualification B.Sc + Diploma are getting 5th CPC scale of Rs.4500-7000.

3.OFB while issuing SRO - 88 (Recruitment Rules) as on 3rd August 2005 revised the entry qualifications of Lab. Technician B.Sc + Diploma (DMLT) + 01 year experience bringing it at par other Lab. Technician serving in other CG Departments, but did not revised the 5th CPC scale of pay from Rs.4500-7000 to Rs.5000-8000. In spite of the facts that many of Lab. Technician of other deptt. are already getting the 5th CPC pay scale of Rs.5000-8000.

In view of the above, kindly initiate necessary action for placing Lab.Technician of Ordnance Factories under Ministry of Defecne, appropriately in PB-2 with Rs.4200 Grade Pay so that the norms / logic of giving 5th CPC scale of pay Rs.5000-8000 Lab.Technician, which of course could not be done for any reason, is set right at this stage with the placement of the scales in the 6th CPC.

22. ENCASHMENT OF FIXED MEDICAL ALLOWANCE FOR PENSIONERS/FAMILY PERNSIONERS

On the recommendation of 5th CPC Govt. of India has issued instruction vide DOP&PW. OM NO. 45/57/97-P 7 PW. Dated 19.12.1997 to the grant of fixed medical allowance @ Rs.100 p.m. to the CG pensioners / Family pensioners residing in the areas not covered by CGHS administered by Min. of Health & Family Welfare and corresponding Health Scheme administered by other Ministries/Departments for their retired employees for meeting expenditure on day to day medical expenses that do not require hospitalization. The amount of Rs.100 was recommended by the 5th CPC and has remained unchanged since then.

6th CPC has recommended in para, 4.11.3 that the Government should consider enhancing the medical allowance for pensioners living in non-CGHS areas appropriately.

Therefore all pensioners and family pensioners living in non-CGHS areas should be granted Rs.100 p.m. Fixed Medical Allowance and the rate of this allowance should be enhanced by 25% automatically each time the dearness allowance payable on the revised pay band goes up by 50%.

23. REDUCTION IN MINIMUM QUALIFYING SERVICE FOR PROMOTION FROM ONE GRADE PAY TO NEXT GRADE PAY.

DOP&T has issued instructions vide OM No. AB 14017/61/2006-Esst. (RR) dated 24th March, 2009 on Sixth CPC recommendations - revision of pay scales - amendment of service rules / Recruitment Rules and instructed to modify the heading of column No. 4 of the schedule on Recruitment Rules and the minimum eligibility service as per the revised guidelines as enclosed in annexure reveals that the minimum qualifying service for promotion from one grade to next or higher grade pay has been enhanced in comparison to existing SROs. This causes discontentment among the employees.

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Uttar Pradesh government has constituted to look into the demands

2010-01-24T23:18:00.000-08:00

Uttar Pradesh government has constituted a high-level committee headed by chief secretary to look into the demands and problems of employees, Chief Minister Mayawati said on Sunday.

"To consider demands and problems of government employees
a high-level committed headed by the chief secretary has been constituted, which will have principal secretaries of personnel and finance and divisional commissioner Lucknow as its members," Mayawati said in a statement issued here.

Welcoming the Karamchari Shikshak Sanyukt Morcha’s decision to call off its strike, the chief minister said the government was sensitive towards the feelings of employees and was committed to resolving their problems.

The employees had yesterday called off their indefinite strike to protest a police baton charge, after a meeting with Additional Cabinet Secretary Vijay Shanker Pandey.

"Despite having limited resources the state government implemented the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission, which created an additional burden of 21,000 crore on the exchequre, only in the interest of the employees," Mayawati said.

Mayawati asked the employees to consider the financial resources of the state while raising their demands.

Apparently referring to the incident where the District Magistrate Lucknow slapped an employee, Mayawati said, "Officers should resolve a situation patiently."

Source : Express India.

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Jammu and Kashmir Government employees began a two-day strike

2010-01-22T22:41:00.000-08:00

State Government employees Thursday began a two-day strike seeking full implementation of sixth pay commission recommendations.

The statewide strike, called by Employees Joint Consultative Committee, showed good impact in Kashmir and Ladakh regions where thousands of employees stayed away from work, though the essential services had been exempted from the strike. Office work remained affected in Jammu as well but the strike showed lesser impact in the winter capital.

Strike affected routine healthcare as outpatient departments in most hospitals across the state remained non-functional while only emergency services were working unhindered.

Hundreds of employees gathered in old secretariat here and staged a sit-in for around two hours amidst slogans against the Government and in favour of their demands.

The employees marched in a procession, led by JCC leader Abdul Qayoom Wani, towards Divisional Commissioner Kashmir’s office where they staged a protest sit-in. The employees presented a memorandum to the Divisional Commissioner, Naseema Lanker, about the Government’s agreement made with the employees in August, 2009.

Protest demonstrations were also held at district headquarters. Factionalism in the employees’ bodies created confusion in Jammu, which diluted the strike in the division. Some small demonstrations were held outside offices in the morning but there wasn’t any lockout of offices. No major protest demonstration were staged anywhere in the winter capital.

JK Employees Joint Action Committee - an amalgam of various employees associations, particularly from Jammu - is following its independent program.

The employees are demanding implementation of sixth pay commission recommendations in full, enhancement of retirement age from 58 to 60 years, regularization of daily wagers, release of housing rental allowance, etc. The Government had agreed to accept the demands and also to release arrears under sixth pay commission by October end. But it was not implemented resulting in fresh tussle between the JCC and the Government.

JCC leader Abdul Qayoom Wani termed today’s strike as successful, threatening an ‘intensified decisive agitation’ in the coming days.

The JCC leadership, he said, was meeting in Jammu on January 27 to decide the future course of action. “Our agitation will be decisive this time,” he said.
Reacting to the Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather’s statement about release of arrears, he said, “They are befooling the people. Government agreed to all our demands in August and now they are backtracking.”

The Finance Minister had yesterday said that Government couldn’t release the arrears unless the required funds come from the Centre.

“If the Government knew they couldn’t release the arrears in October why did they enter into an agreement with us? Only state employees are made to wait for their rights while others are ruling roost,” Qayoom said.

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State-owned banks may soon be looking at a differential pay structure

2010-01-22T22:38:00.000-08:00

State-owned banks may soon be looking at a differential pay structure, based on profitability.

“The performance of all public sector banks is not the same.
There is a need for bank-wise pay revision based on performance, productivity and efficiency,” K C Chakrabarty, deputy governor of Reserve Bank of India, told DNA.

The suggestion could cheer the staff of banks that rank higher in terms of profitability - a key measure of performance.
Their pay packets could be much bigger than those of counterparts at less profitable banks.

For example, an assistant manager at State Bank of India (SBI) could get a much higher salary than an assistant manager at Central Bank of India, which posted profits of Rs 9,123 crore and Rs 571 crore, respectively last fiscal.

According to Chakrabarty, it is only after such a structure is put in place that public sector banks might agree to a variable pay regime under which 70% of the salary will be fixed and the rest will vary depending on the performance of the employee.

Experts feel such a move will help public sector banks compete more effectively with private sector banks.

“Each bank’s capacity to remunerate its staff differs with the bank’s performance. If this move is brought in place, then banks with good performance and profitability will be in a position to gather the best talent and will be able to compete better with private sector banks,” said J M Garg, chairman and managing director of Corporation Bank.

A pay structure based on performance and profitability may act as a deterrent against employee attrition. “If the pay structure is followed as per individual bank’s performance, then the banks with good performance will become more competitive as they will be able to attract and retain talent,” said M D Mallya, chairman and managing director of Bank of Baroda.

Large banks may lead the race in rewarding their employees.

“Initially this may be done independently by banks like SBI,” said K Unnikrishnan, senior vice-president and deputy chief executive of Indian Banks’ Association (IBA).

“While working out wage revisions, each bank’s capacity to compensate should be taken into consideration,” said Narayanan Raja, deputy managing director and corporate development officer, SBI.

This move will be taken forward in the next pay scale revision.

“Decisions on wage revisions are taken after negotiations with IBA and the United Forum of Bank Unions at an interval of every five years. So any decision on this will be taken forward in 2012 when the present five years duration will end,” Raja said.

Currently the pay scales in most public sector banks are almost at the same level and they are typically below those at private sector banks.

Private sector banks pay salaries as per their performance, profitability and capacity, feels Kalyan Swarup, dean, National Institute of Bank Management, from where many banks recruit entry level executives every year.

“Public sector banks like Bank of Baroda, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Central Bank of India were paying salaries in the range of Rs 5-5.5 lakh per annum to our students. On the other hand, ICICI Bank picked up students with Rs 6.25 lakh per annum, HDFC Bank at Rs 6.10 lakh per annum and Development Credit Bank at Rs 6 lakh per annum,” said Swarup.

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Another round of bipartite talks between IBA and 5 workmen Unions

2010-01-22T22:35:00.000-08:00

Another round of bipartite talks between IBA and 5 workmen Unions viz. AIBEA, NCBE, BEFI, INBEF & NOBW took place today in Mumbai. In today’s meeting, we further discussed about construction of revised pay scales, rates of annual increment, rationalisation of special pay in clerical and substaff cadre etc. There was also discussion on the proposal to club HRA and CCA to ensure equitable increase in the allowance in all areas with special emphasis on the rural and semi urban centres.
Then we took up for discussion the costing of pension and submitted our view points.

We also took up improvement in other allowances like Washing Allowance, Cycle Allowance, Project Area, Compensatory Allowance, Split Duty Allowance, Hill & Fuel Allowance, Halting Allowance, Breakage Allowance etc besides improvement in distance entitlement under LFC, family definition to include dependent brothers / sisters who are physically handicapped, revision in income amount to determine dependent parents, non-insisting of four days leave while availing LFC encashment, improvement in road mileage rate, sanction of 45 days special leave for women employees undergoing hysterectomy operation, upgradation of lumpsum paid part time employees to scale wages, improvement in hospitalization reimbursement scheme, inclusion of Sidha treatment for reimbursement, etc. etc. There were also some discussions on revision of duties for Single Window Operators, Head Cashiers and Special Assistants.

The calculations on cost impact of the above will be done and worked out for the purpose of finalizing the various items and components. The next round of Bipartite talks will be held on 9th February, 2010.

In today’s meeting we were informed that Punjab and Sind Bank management have also given their mandate to IBA for being governed by the proposed wage revision agreement and thus all the banks are now covered.

Earlier, at the beginning of the talks, homage was paid to the veteran leader Com. Jyoti Basu and Mr. Mohan Rao, Chief General Manager Corporation Bank and member of Negotiating Committee of IBA who had died recently by observing two minutes silence."

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The indefinite strike launched by Manipur government employees

2010-01-20T23:24:00.000-08:00

The indefinite strike launched by Manipur government employees, demanding higher salaries, has crippled the functioning of the state administration for the past five days, officials said Wednesday.JACEO secretary general Ch. Chandramani Singh told reporters Wednesday: “There is no question of withdrawing the agitation. We shall even intensify our stir until the state government met our demand.”

Reacting to the Chief Minister, O Ibobi’s press conference yesterday, the JAC of the All Manipur Trade Union Council (AMTUC) and All Manipur Govt. Employees Organisation (AMGEO), charged the chief minister of polarizing the people of the state between government employees, pensioners, workers and the rest of the population.

The JAC, in a press note, said if the CM backs his contention that the state government does not have money to pay arrears to please the 60,000 odd employees with documents and bring it in the public domain, the JAC would welcome it.

Else the JAC would consider the chief minister’s contention as an attempt to mislead the people.

On the issue of the general public facing the brunt of the burden as a result of payment of salaries to the government employees, the JAC contended the two are not at all related.

On the other hand, asked the press note, why is the chief minister not trying to save the amount allocated by the planning commission, is there any other state in the country which had returned its allocated amount because of inability to spend it.

How much benefit will the state derive if it forfeits the rightful arrears of the employees and how much progress will it bring to the state, asked the JAC.

Stating that if the state is going to progress by nonpayment of the rightful share of DA/DR of the employees the JAC would not ask for any increased pay and pension.

The officers of the Manipur Judicial Service have been entitled 54% DA from July 1, 2008, 68% DA from January 1,2009 and 73% DA from July 1, 2009 whereas the longstanding demands of the JAC have been ignored.

Why is the DA/DR which was supposed to have been paid out during the time of the 12 Finance Commission award not been paid even though adequate funds were allotted for it, questioned the JAC.

Asserting that the chief minister’s information as to the implementation of 6th pay commission in the north eastern states in not upto date, the JAC revealed there is no state in the north east which has not implemented the 6th pay and among them Manipur will be last one to do so.

The reason for this to the JAC is obvious and asked which other state in the country has tried rob the benefits of the 6th pay of those employees who are going to retire in 1/2 months time.

On its demand for increasing the service age to 60 years, the JAC stated that it is the norm all over the country and the government should not link it with the unemployment problem of the state.

The JAC had been demanding the lifting of ban on recruitment and setting up of a ’Task Force’ to find ways to give employment to the youth of the state.

In the end, the press note stated that if the 13th Finance Commission award the proposed amount required to pay the arrears, the reason for that would be the nonpayment of the rightful DA/DR and other benefits entitled to the employees.

For this the state government is solely responsible.

In the end, the JAC of the AMTUC and AMGEO reiterated its resolve to continue with the cease work strike until its demands are made and sought the cooperation of all the employees in making it a success.

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United Forum of Nationalised Bank Officers Association meeting

2010-01-20T23:20:00.000-08:00

Next Round of Bipartite Talks with IBA scheduled on 22nd January, 2010 for Workmen and 23rd January, 2010 for Officers.

The minutes of meeting of United Forum of Nationalised Bank Officers’ Association held in Kolkata on 05.01.2010.

"The city of Kolakta has witnessed another historic evening when more than 1600 officers of Nationalized Banks had assembled in the heritage Town Hall at the call of all national organization of Nationalized Bank Officers on 5th January, 2010 evening. The conglomeration of officers cutting across the rank and affiliation had depicted their high enthusiasm to witness their long cherished dream to become a reality. The national leaders of AINBOF, AIBOA, INBOC and NOBO had addressed the mammoth gathering of officers. The meeting was blessed by the august present of legendary leader of bank officers movement, Com.S.R.Sengupta. All the leaders were extended war welcome with flower bouquet by the representatives of various organizations.

Com.P.K.SARKAR, Convenor of AINBOF had extended hearty welcome to the distinguished leaders presenting the meeting. He had mentioned about the special significance of the meeting after formation of the forum in its meeting held at Mumbai on 10th August, 2009 and this has crystallized into the strong bonding of officers’ organization through the formation of United Forum of Nationalized Bank Officers’ Association in its meeting on 5th January, 2010 morning at Kolkata. This way today’s meeting is a strong step towards consolidation of movement of officers in Nationalized Banks. The officers meet under this forum shall take place in all big cities throughout the country in next few months.

Com.S,.R.Sengupta, former President and General Secretary of AIBOC had complimented the leadership for the unique achievement in terms of inimitable wage settlement with another option for pension which had been long felt desire of the nationalized bank officers. He had categorically mentioned about the current wage revision to be the best settlement ever. While speaking about the newly formed Forum of Nationalized Bank Officers, he had mentioned that it had been our demand for a long time, for some reasons or the other it could not be materialized. He had suggested that a broader unit is required to be made in order to achieve what we want to. Following the global melt down the sufferings of the working people have worsened; capital has unlashed attack on labour mercilessly; we require to have unity, preparedness for sacrifice in struggle and a definite aim to succeed. He had wished that the Forum will carry forward the struggle in an effective manner in days to come.

Com.S.R.Rathore, Deputy General Secretary of NOBO had addressed the meeting. He said that we are going to start a new chapter in the history of officer’s movement. While comparing the pay structure with RBI, Government etc., he had mentioned that there is a lot of disparity in the wage of SBI officers with that of their counterpart in nationalized banks. Four additional increments are given on recruitment, leased accommodation facility, higher quantum of conveyance and housing loan with lesser rate of interest, medical reimbursement facility etc., are the key areas where there are alarming discrimination with nationalized banks, those are to be removed. The forum will continue the struggle till it achieves the same. He had mentioned that there have been disparities in the service conditions between the SBI officers and officers of the associated banks. Such things can not be tolerated any more. He had urged upon the rank and file to get united to protect their own interest and fight against the discrimination that have been meted with the officers of nationalized banksfor the last two decades.

Com.K.K.Nair, General Secretary, INBOC, while addressing the meeting had mentioned about how the officers of nationalized banks had been deprived in every wage settlement in the past. That is why the United Forum of Nationalized Bank Officers has been formed today in this historic city of Kolkata, he had quoted. No atrocity will be allowed against the officers of nationalized banks henceforth. We all have a collective and individual role to play to erase discrimination between the nationalized banks and others in the industry. We have to enforce “Equal Pay for Equal Work” as per pronouncement of Supreme Court and law of the land. Com.Nair had explained the developments that took place in wage revision process. He had demanded parity in privileges of nationalized bank officers with that of SBI. This positive oriented forum wants parity with SBI as per Supreme Court pronouncement. We shall win; he concluded his speech with this positive note.

Com.R.J.Sridharan, General Secretary, AIBOA in his speech had extended war m welcome to the mass gathering of officers. He had mentioned that the United Forum has been formed with a new hope, new note and new vision. It would be out duty to keep the unity intact with preparedness to sacrifice for the right cause. While giving stress on uniformity he had mentioned that without uniformity, the unity of thought and action can not take place. While commenting on the disparity, he had informed that through PCR Govt., had given us parity, after 20 years we have lost it. Government has been continuously helping SBI by providing them monopoly in government business. The nationalized banks are facing stiff competition and challenges to procure business now the time has come to give a new movement and new direction, he had quoted. While mentioning about merger/acquisition he had mentioned that the Government is giving a health tonic of merger by merging the associate banks with SBI. On the issue of another option on pension he had expressed his clear vision that we are not demanding pension as 3rd benefit. The extension of pension option will benefit3.37 lac and odd families; whole of the industry will be covered under pension scheme. He had expressed concernon the plight of officers working under CBS environment, demanded regulated working hours for officers. While concluding his speech he had expressed his confidence that today’s bright and right start in the city of Kolkata shall give confidence in the minds of officers in nationalized banks. We have to move forward with unity, perfect precision and organizational force.

Com.K.S.Shetty, General Secretary of AINBOF had delivered his speech before the house. It was the celebration of bonding of officers under the banner of United Forum, the birth of which is the culmination of the formation of AINBOF in Kolkata on 18th December, 2009. Com.Shetty had categorically mentioned that the trade unions are formed on the premise of equality, unity and fraternity. Exploitation within the organization can not and ;should not be tolerated. He had also highlighted the glaring disparity in housing loan, conveyance loan and other benefits between SBI and nationalized banks. Our unity only can provide us justice. While dealing with the MOU at 17.5%, with another option on pension, which he had signed as President of AIBOC was the best in the given reality and framework. Moreover, another option on pension was the crying need of the hour, though which entire industry is covered under social security net. Com.Shetty had cautioned about the upcoming danger of merger and acquisition of nationalized banks. Our unity and action can only protect our identity, nobody else will come to our rescue. While concluding his inspiring speech, he had mentioned that this Forum with pursue the issues of regulated office hours, five days a week, removal of disparity, uniform wage structure, recruitment in banks, and all other threats and challenges before the officers of nationalized bank officers.

Vote of thanks was proposed by Com.K.Ramakoteswara Rao, Working President of AINBOF. While speaking on this occasion, he had praised the role played by the hosts in organizing the meet in a meticulous way. The spirit of the officers shall lead the movement in every nook and corner of our country. He also declared that the day will be regarded as a red letter day in the history of nationalized bank officers in particular and the officers fraternity in general. Henceforth the officers of nationalized banks shall hold their head high and led the movement against disparity of any kind in future."

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Tripura state government to seek a special sanction of funds

2010-01-17T23:22:00.000-08:00

Forced on the backfoot by a growing discontent among 1.5 lakh state government employees, 40,000 pensioners and 1,800 college teachers, the Left Front government in Tripura has decided to seek a special sanction of funds.

The move aims to bring the payscales on a par with the recommendations of the 6th Central Pay Commission and to implement the UGC-recommended pay allowances for college and university teachers in toto.

Finance minister Badal Chowdhury pressed for the special sanction of funds in a letter to Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee. The matter will come up for discussion in Mukherjee’s pre-budget meeting with finance ministers of the states.

Chowdhury stated that there should be no gap between the state employees’ pay and allowances and those of the central staff.

“We upgraded payscales and allowances of state employees and pensioners last year but have not been able to implement payscales and allowances on a par with the central employees. We brought to the notice of the 13th Finance Commission the requirement of funds for the purpose with detailed data but we are yet to know the nature of recommendations made by the finance commission,” Chowdhury said in the letter. He also sought Mukherjee’s intervention in improving the credit-deposit ratio of nationalised banks in Tripura.

The college teachers association has decided to grant the state government time till February 28 to implement the revised UGC payscales, failing which they have threatened an “all-out agitation”.

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Manipur State Government has ruled out the possibility of paying arrears

2010-01-17T23:20:00.000-08:00

While confirming that recommendations of the 6th Pay Commission would be definitely extended to employees of the State Government, Chief Minister Okram Ibobi has ruled out the possibility of paying arrears.Addressing a press meet at his conference hall this evening, O Ibobi appealed to call off the cease work strike of the Joint Administrative Council of the All Manipur Trade Union Council and the All Manipur Government Employees’ Organisation in the interest of the State.
Altogether Rs 660.46 crores would be spent on paying employees’ salaries during the current financial year 2009-10 .

Once recommendations of the 6th Pay Commission are implemented, the annual expenditure on paying salaries would rise to Rs 726.89 crores in 2010-11, Rs 763.23 crores in 2011-12, Rs 801.40 crores in 2012-2013, Rs 841.46 crores in 2013-14 and Rs 883.54 crores in 2014-15, the Chief Minister elaborated.

After studying the matter minutely, the Government decided to implement the recommendations of the 6th Pay Commission.

In case, the Government should pay arrears calculating from 2006, another Rs 2000 crores is required.

This is beyond the capacity of the Government, Ibobi said.

Although the State Government has been proposing the required amount for paying arrears to the 13th Finance Commission, it is unlikely that the proposal would be accepted.

"If the 13th Finance Commission turns down the proposal, the State Government has no means to pay arrears", Ibobi said.

Payment of arrears would mean inordinate delay in distribution of salaries.

The situation would reverse to the past where salaries were paid after three or five months.

Pointing out that Northeastern States like Nagaland, Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura are yet to implement recommendations of the 6th Pay Commission, Ibobi maintained that many big States having resources of thousands of crores of rupees have not implemented the recommendations.

The State Government cannot consider only for its 60,000/70,000 strong employees.

The Government cannot see only one side.

Manipur is not solely for the 60,000/70,000 employees.

Manipur is for all the 23 lakh people inhabiting it, the Chief Minister asserted.

This does not mean that the demands of the JAC would be brushed aside.

Stating that reasonable demands would be fulfilled, Ibobi claimed that larger number of the JAC’s demands have been met already.

The demand for extension of service period to 60 years cannot be accommodated in the interest of the large number of unemployed youths living in the State, Ibobi clarified.

Expressing dismay over the report that JAC members went around some departments in their effort to mobilise employees today, the Chief Minister said that only about 50 per cent of the plan amount could be utilised till date due to delay in finalisation of plan size by the Planning Commission.

The State must utilise Rs 2000 crores during the current financial year.

But only about 75 days are remaining before the end of the financial year.

Stating that this is a very crucial period, Chief Minister O Ibobi appealed to the JAC to withdraw the cease work strike in the interest of the State.

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The AGP problem of Lect and Sr.Lect has been sorted out

2010-01-11T22:18:00.000-08:00

As per reliable source we got to know that The AGP problem of Lect and Sr. Lect has been sorted out and has been made at par with UGC. However, the AGP of Lect Sel Grade , as on date, is still Rs.6000/-.

Following is the copy of letter from the President, Association of Gazetted Officers Technical Education, Delhi regarding the present situation of Polytechnic Teachers’ pay hike.

"8th Jan 2010

Dear Colleagues:

Let me first wish all my colleaguess a very happy and peaceful 2010!!!!!!!!!!
The AGP problem of Lect and Sr. Lect has been sorted out and has been made at par with UGC. However, the AGP of Lect Sel Grade , as on date, is still Rs.6000/-.
However, we have met Sh Ashok Thakur,Dr Paliwal,S S Mantha Chairman AICTE, Ms Pratima Dikshit and other senior officials yesterday. Based on our discussions with them, we feel the AGP of Lect Sel Grade shall also be increased to that of the UGC.
All colleagues , spread across the country , are requested not to call or disturb MHRD/AICTE officials anymore. Just be patient for 4/5 days (working days) for things to crystalize.

Infact I hope, and wish that soon we may have to thank AICTE/MHRD for getting us out of the woods. We have to express special thanks to Sh Kapil Sibal Hon’lble Union Minister for MHRD and Smt Purandeswari Devi Hon’lble Union MoS MHRD and AIFPTO for their continued support for our cause. However, we should keep our fingers crossed till the actual notification happens.I am sure the New Year 2010 shall usher in a lot of happiness for ALL OF US.

With Regards and Thanks to ALL for showing faith in AGOTE
K.S. Shivaramu,

President - AGOTE"

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The Income Tax Officers granting the enhanced Grade Pay

2010-01-08T22:22:00.000-08:00

Good news for the ITOs. The Income Tax Officers[Gr B] was placed in the Pay Band 9300-34800 with Grade Pay of Rs 4800 initially. After four years of service as ITO, they were to be placed in the same Pay Band with enhanced Grade Pay of Rs 5400.

There was a doubt whether they would be granted the one increment or not while upgradation.

DOPT has recently clarified it in favour of the ITOs. They will be given one additional increment while granting the enhanced Grade Pay after completion of four years of regular service.

The arrears arising for this re fixation, is to be disbursed immediately.

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Simmering discontent among Uttar Pradesh state employees

2010-01-08T22:19:00.000-08:00

Simmering discontent among state employees, who are bracing up for a direct confrontation with the Govt., decided to launch a statewide strike, threatens to cripple health care, transport and education from 21st January.

"There is no going back from our stand and we are determined to resort to a direct action, if our demands for parity in all respects with those of our counterparts in the Central government are not conceded at the earliest," said VP Mishra, president of the Employees-Teachers’ Joint Front, UP.

"We are disappointed by the state of affairs and our main grouse is against chief minister Mayawati, who has refused to meet even the delegation of this front, which is an apex body of the employees," Mishra rued. We were left with no option but to take a direct action now and we would not give up, even if there were repressive measures against the employees, he said.

Strongly opposed to the ban imposed on the `dharna sthal’ in front of the Vidhan Sabha, Mishra said that the Front would also hold its demonstration in violation of this on January 21. Incidentally, the Front’s strike plan also coincides with that of the budget session of the state assembly. Prior to this, Mishra said, the Front would hold demonstrations throughout the state in front of collectorates of districts concerned on January 12 to press for its demands.

The Front’s demands include implementation of the Sixth Pay-commission’s report in letter and spirit, time scale at 8, 16 and 24 years of services instead of that 10, 20 and 30 years of services, announcement of dearness allowance, which is due from November, regularisation of work-charge employees against the direct vacancies, and education and conveyance allowances, as given to those of the Central employees under the Sixth Pay Commission report.

Lamenting the government’s attitude towards the employees, he said such a situation had developed in the state for the first time after 1986 when the state employees had launched one of the longest strikes on similar issues.

Nearly 18 lakh of total 22 lakh state employees are part of this organisation, which has been formulated by merging together over 18 different unions of the state employees. They include around 16 lakh state employees, over 2 lakh civic employees and teachers. However, teachers led by Om Prakash Sharma are not part of this front.

The strike, as proposed, is likely to have a widespread impact on the state. This is because the Front represents employees responsible for maintaining essential services like UPSRTC buses, hospitals, civic affairs, development authorities, water supply system, drainage and sanitation, besides a large number of schools and colleges.

The government treasury work, according to Mishra, will also be suspended indefinitely.

Accusing the government of inaction on justified demands of the employees, Mishra said, the issue had been left by the CM on her babus instead of addressing it herself. The Rizvi Committee’s report on parity in pay-scales had also not been conceded. The result was that there were large number of anomalies in the implementation of Sixth Pay Commission’s report due to which the state employees were on the receiving end.

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Uttar Pradesh teachers observed a chalk down strike

2010-01-06T22:57:00.000-08:00

Teaching in all the state universities and degree colleges across Uttar Pradesh was affected on Wednesday as around 15,000 teachers observed a chalk down strike to demand implementation of sixth pay commission recommendations.

"Nearly 15,000 teachers of 12 universities and 354 degree colleges in the state are on a one day chalk down strike to press for early arrears of sixth pay commission," Secretary of UP Residential Universities Teachers Association (UPRUTA) Pushpendra Mishra said.

The teachers association, including UPRUTA and Federation of UP Universities College Teachers Association (FUPUCTA), are demanding arrears with effect from January 1, 2006.

"We are also demanding that age of superannuation should be increased to 65 years and orders regarding HRA, DA and city allowance should be issued by the state government," president of Lucknow University Affiliated Colleges Teachers Association (LUACTA) Maulendu Mishra said.

"Sixteen states have already sent letters to the University Grants Commission demanding arrears with restrospective effect," he said.

The UPRUTA secretary claimed that the boycott call was successful across the state.

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Jammu and Kashmir employees towards the demand of sixth pay commission

2010-01-06T22:55:00.000-08:00

With the government showing no signs of flexibility towards the demand of sixth pay commission, around four lakh employees in Jammu and Kashmir are all set to intensify the struggle for accomplishing their demands.

The employees’ Joint Consultative Committee, spearheading the agitation, convened a high level meeting of its leaders on Wednesday to discuss the further course of the agitation.

Though it remained inconclusive, the leaders have consensually decided to give government a tough time in the coming days.

The member JCC and President Employees Joint Action Committee (K), Khursheed Alam told Greater Kashmir that they have been left with no option but to intensify the strike.

“Even after government promised that it would address our demand in October 2009 but it has not paid any heed towards us till date. We are going to intensify the struggle to meet our demands now,” Alam said.

“We went for strike on December 23 and 30, 2009 just to draw the attention of government. But government remained silent without showing any courtesy towards the suffering employees. Now we have decided to go to the extreme,” he said.

Khursheed said they have got suggestions for an intensified agitation from all leaders but the final decision about its modus operandi would be finalized tomorrow.

“We discussed all options we have up our sleeves. But we will meet again tomorrow,” he said.

The spokesperson of JCC Farooq Ahmad Trali said, “January will be hectic for government as well as for employees. Probably we will go for indefinite strike.” He said the employees of the Kashmir would be called to Jammu for secretariat gherao as a step towards intensifying the struggle.

“The secretariat employees union did not attend the meeting today, so they were meeting tomorrow again,” he said, adding that, “We will give a press conference tomorrow.”

Around four lakh employees are up in arms against the state for “disregard” to their demands. They are seeking implementation of the agreement reached out between them on August 18. The government, in the agreement, had agreed to accept the demands of the employees and also release their arrears under sixth pay commission by October end.

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Government of Manipur recommended extension of the 6th Central Pay Commission

2010-01-06T22:52:00.000-08:00

Like in other States of the country, the State Cabinet has recommended extension of the 6th Central Pay Commission to the employees of the Government of Manipur with effect from April. SPF spokesperson N Biren informed that in view of extension of 6th Central Pay Commission to the Government employees in other parts of the country with effect from next fiscal year, 2010-2011, the Cabinet recommended extension of the same benefit to the Government employees of the State starting from April. It may be noted here that the State Government proposed to the 13th Finance Commission for extending the benefit of the 6th Central Pay Commission to its employees.

The proposal, however, does not have the amount for payment of arrears. Although the report of the 13th Finance Commission has already been submitted to the President of India, it is to be finalised only after the President gives her assent. So far the report is yet to be finalised. Though payment of arrears had not been proposed o the 13th Finance Commission, the SPF spokesman assured that the State Government would be lobbying in this regard. Biren further informed that the meeting of the State Cabinet presided over by Chief Minister also recommended extension of assistance to the students of Sainik School, Imphal with regard to their tuition fee and dietary.

Accordingly, the Government would be providing cent percent financial assistance to the students who secured 90 percent and above marks in the entrance and annual examinations of the school. The Government would also be extending financial aid upto 70 percent on the tuition fee and upto 50 percent on the dietary of the General category students who secured 80 to 89.9 percent mark and SC/ST students who secured 75 to 84.9 percent mark.

General category students who secured 65 to 79.9 percent mark and SC/ST students who secured 60 to 74.9 percent marks would also avail financial aid upto 60 percent on their tuition fee and upto 50 percent on dietary. Moreover, Govt would also provide financial assistance upto 50 percent on tuition fee and another 50 percent on their dietary respectively to general students who secured 55 to 64.9 percent mark and SC/ST students who secured 50 to 59.9 percent mark.

Apart from discussing the opening address that the Governor is scheduled to deliver in the upcoming session of the Manipur Legislative Assembly, today’s Cabinet meeting has also approved appointment of a Training Officer and Documentation cum Research officer of the Earthquake and Natural Calamity.

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PSU and PFRDA are looking at the New Pension Scheme

2010-01-03T23:27:00.000-08:00

The government may have shied away from tabling the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) Bill in the Winter session, but the New Pension Scheme (NPS) would see its membership base expanding significantly in 2010. Public sector general insurers, who lifted a long-standing hiring freeze in 2009, have agreed to bring their new workforce under the NPS, as has Life Insurance Corporation.

Similarly, following the lead of National Aluminum Company (Nalco) Ltd, another public sector unit, NTPC Ltd, is moving its employees’ superannuation pension funds into the NPS.

“It’s always easier for others to join after one PSU takes the lead. Nalco was the test case and once we finalised the modalities to transfer their superannuation pension funds into the NPS, the template was ready. We expect other public sector firms will also evince interest,” a senior PFRDA official told FE. The interim regulator has also written to the department of public enterprises to help other central PSUs bring their workers into the NPS-fold - for pension savings beyond the mandatory contributions at 24% of salary to the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation.

While PSUs are looking at the NPS, thanks to a pay revision panel recommendation, the finance ministry has been holding discussions with public sector general insurance companies to join the scheme. The five insurers to be approached are New India Assurance, United India Assurance, National Insurance Company, General Insurance Corporation and Oriental Insurance.

“All five have agreed in principle to join the NPS. We are also discussing the option with LIC,” a finance ministry official said. “At present, only about 300 employees would become members of the NPS. But once the general insurance companies begin recruiting on a larger scale, we expect another 20,000 employees to join,” the official said.

The North Block has also been urging public sector banks to transfer their employee superannuation funds into the NPS, and the Indian Banks’ Association has decided ‘in principle’ to move new workers in public sector banks to the NPS. With PSU banks expected to hire at least 1.5 lakh new workers by 2011, the NPS membership base will rise significantly from its current strength of 6.5 lakh members. PSU and insurance firms aside, several of the 21 state governments that agreed to join the NPS are yet to transfer their workers’ contribution records and funds. Currently, only three states have moved into the... NPS fold.

While the scheme was opened up to citizens on a voluntary basis in May 2008, around 3,000 workers have signed up so far. Officials attribute the poor response to the intermediaries’ conflict of interests as they earn better commissions selling other financial products. The high record-keeping costs are also seen to be a deterrent.

Though the PFRDA has decided to call for fresh bids for a second central record-keeping agency to break NSDL’s monopoly, reaching the 1 million members milestone is crucial for the PFRDA as it will reduce record-keeping costs by 20%. NSDL has promised to cut annual maintenance charges from the current Rs 350 to Rs 280 and transaction costs from Rs 10 to Rs 6 per transaction.

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Manipur government has resumed its campaign for various demands

2010-01-03T23:24:00.000-08:00

The Joint Administrative Council (JAC), an apex body of the employees of Manipur government, has resumed its campaign for various demands and warned of ceasework strike as they have no confidence of getting their demand fulfilled, which is adopting recommendation of the sixth Pay Commission report within the deadline set by them on January 15 .

The JAC of All Manipur Trade Union Council (AMTUC) and All Manipur Government Employees Organisation (AMGEO) on December 31 last submitted an ultimatum to the Manipur Chief Minister with a warning of launching ceasework strike from next day if the government fails to issue order with regard to the implementation of the sixth Pay Commission’s recommendation by January 15 .

Government failure to take note of the long pending demand of implementation of the recommendation of sixth pay structure will compel employees of departments under the Manipur government to cease work, a statement of the publicity and information secretary, L Priyobrata stated.

The JAC members are launching its campaign from department to department from today with regard to the ultimatum served by them to the Chief Minister.

They campaigned today to the offices located in Imphal area.

Governments of the neighbouring states of Assam and Mizoram had already announced switching the pay structures of sixth pay commission.

Chief Minister of Manipur, O Ibobi Singh, on April 2009 during an election rally had assured that the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations would be implemented in the state from 2010 and backlogged salary of government employees would also be disbursed from April 13 .

He said that the government is aware of the protest by the government employees and added that the Sixth Pay Commission recommendation was delayed as state resources were very low.

But after the 13th finance commission awards in 2010 it should be possible to implement the recommendations.

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Assam State employees protest against the failure of the State Government

2010-01-03T23:23:00.000-08:00

The Sadou Asom Karmachari Parishad (SAKP) dismissed the claim of Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi that the State employees have been paid at par with the Central Government employees as baseless. It has also described the latest State Pay Commission report as a devious document. This Pay Commission has followed only the model of the basic pay structures of the Central Government while preparing its report, alleged the employees’ body.

In a statement here, the SAKP has also announced agitational programmes in protest against the failure of the State Government to pay its employees at par with the Central Government employees.

According to the SAKP agitational plan, its members would stage dharna at the headquarters of the districts and sub-divisions on January 6 and the presidents and general secretaries of its district units, along with the office- bearers of its central executive committee would stage a sit-in demonstration at Dispur Lastgate on January 11.

The SAKP, in its statement, reiterated the demands for removing the discrepancies of the State Pay Commission report. It has resented that besides the discrepancies already pointed out by it in the report, the Pay Commission failed to recommend time scale promotion for the benefit of theemployees.

But the Chief Minister despite being informed by the SAKP in writing, has cared least to redress the grievances of the employees and has now started claiming that the State employees are being paid at par with the Central Government. This is unfortunate, said the SAKP in its statement and dared the Chief Minister to establish the veracity of his claim at a meeting with its representatives.

It also expressed serious resentment over the reported warning issued by the Chief Minister that any attempt by the employees at registering their protest through agitations against the pay structures suggested by the Pay Commission would be suppressed with firm hand. It said that theemployees are bound to protest any move to deprive them of their legitimate dues.

The Assam Secretariat Services Association and the Guwahati Zilla Karmachari Parishad have extended support to the agitational programmes announced by the SAKP in support of its demands for removing the discrepancies of the Pay Commission report etc.

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The second round of the Small Committee meet was held at IBA office

2009-12-29T22:04:00.000-08:00

Mumbai, the second round of the Small Committee meet was held at IBA office, World Trade Centre, Mumbai.

The Small Committee of IBA was represented by Shri Jagdish Pai, Executive Director, Canara Bank, Shri B.B.Das, Shri Rajeev Rishi, Shri R.C.Srivastava, Shri Suresh Chandra, Shri K.Unnikrishnan and Shri M.Venugopalan, AIBOA, INBOC and NOBO were represented by Shri S.Nagarajan, Shri K.K.Nair and Shri S.K.Rathod respectively.

Responding to the proposal submitted by Four Officers’ Organizations on 10th December 2009, IBA provided a salary chart constructed on 2836 Index point merger with average 20% loading along with notes on outsourcing and pension specifying that 13% of the Basic pay of SBI officers to be kept separately undistributed which SBI will decide how to deal with the same.

In response, the association impressed upon IBA the need to have higher start of pay for officers considering the large scale dissatisfaction caused in the last wage revision, tax on perquisites etc. It was also stated that appropriation from the Industry level wage load to SBI on pension costing, leave encashment on retirement loaded exclusively, construction of pay scales with 11% loading with merger start at Scale I are unacceptable to the Organizations. With regard to outsourcing, it was stated that the associations shall revert to them after discussions amongst themselves.

While taking note of the view points, the IBA representatives assured to revisit the areas of concern and respond to the officers’ organizations.

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Government approved revised pay scales for AIIMS and PGIMER

2009-12-29T22:02:00.000-08:00

Government approved revised pay scales for faculty of autonomous medical institutions like the AIIMS and PGIMER, Chandigarh, bringing them at par with their counterparts in IITs and IIMs.

The faculty at these institutes had refused to accept the revised emoluments as per the sixth pay commission recommendations, demanding a pay hike at par with those in the IIMs and IITs.

The decision to give term parity to the faculty of autonomous medical colleges with their counterparts in IITs and IIMs was approved by the Union Cabinet at its meeting held today, Health Ministry sources said.

While the revised pay would be applicable from January 2006, allowances would be given with effect from August 2008.

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4.5 lakh Jammu and Kashmir employees will go on a complete lock-out strike

2009-12-29T22:00:00.000-08:00

At least 4.5 lakh employees in the government and semi-government offices will go on a complete lock-out strike today to press for the immediate release of their pending benefits under the 6th Pay Commission recommendations.

Talking to Rising Kashmir, chief spokesperson EJAC (Q) and a senior JCC member, Farooq A Trali said there will be a state wide lock-out strike in the government offices, but added that there will be no protests.

“The lock-out strike is aimed to remind the state government to release the pending benefits under the 6th Pay Commission,” said Trali, adding, “A crucial meeting of all the JCC leaders will be held in Jammu on January 5 to chalk-out the future strategy. The strike programme of JCC will also be announced after the meeting on that day and shall be launched before January 15.”

JCC had earlier given a week’s time to the government to fulfill the demands after the employees staged sit-in protests on December 23.

“JCC has formed special squads to monitor the lock-out programme in all the districts. But we won’t be going for any protest today till further programme is announced,” Trali said.

The Employee’s Union is demanding that the retirement age of government employees be raised from 58 years to 60 years at par with central government officials. In addition it also wants regularizing of services of daily wagers and adhoc workers, merging of Cost of Living Allowance into the Dearness Allowance, uniform Housing Rent Allowance as that of central government employees, release of 40 per cent arrears and extending the 6th pay panel benefits to local bodies, municipal corporations and public sector undertakings.

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Jammu and Kashmir employees observed strike in response to sit-in protest

2009-12-25T22:53:00.000-08:00

Accusing government of indulging into “documental-betrayal”, at least 4.5 lakh employees suspended work on Wednesday paralyzing normal work in government offices across the State.The employees observed strike in response to sit-in protest called by Joint Consultation Committee (JCC) which is spearheading the demand of releasing the remaining “promised benefits” under 6th pay commission before the year ender.The JCC members held protest demonstrations both in Srinagar and Jammu to press for the implementation of the pending sixth pay commission recommendations already accepted by the government in principle.
“Today’s strike was a success and the employees went on a two-hour sit-in protest in their respective offices. It was a part of the strike programme to remind government of its promises,” chief spokesperson EJAC (Q) and a senior JCC member Farooq A Trali said.

Trali said the government staff banded under JCC is all set to launch an agitation “if the pay panel recommendations were not fulfilled before the New Year begins.”He said, “Employees are ready to counter any time buying techniques of the government. If the government continues the non-seriousness there will be a complete lock-out on Dec 30 and further strategy will be announced on that day as well,” said Trali, adding that the month of January 2010 will prove “very hectic” for the government.
“If our accepted demands were not fulfilled in the coming days, the month of January 2010 will be hectic for the government. We can go to any extent after December,” he threatened.

The JCC members also presented a memorandum to the Additional Commissioner Kashmir and DC Srinagar.
“We met MoS for Tourism Nasir Sogami, who also heads winter secretariat and apprised him of our genuine demands. He assured us that he will take the issue with chief minister,” the JCC spokesperson said.The employees’ union is demanding raise in the retirement age of state government employees from 58 to 60 years, on par with central government officials. I

n addition, it also wants regularizing of services of daily wage and ad hoc workers, merging of Cost of Living Allowance into the Dearness Allowance, uniform Housing Rent Allowance as that of central government employees, release of 40 per cent arrears and extending the sixth pay panel benefits to Local Bodies, Municipal Corporations and Public Sector Undertakings. “We had an agreement with the government on August 18 and the benefits were promised till October 31. But till date there is no response from the government while the price rise has created chaos everywhere.” said Trali.

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Karnataka lecturers and professors new year gift

2009-12-25T22:50:00.000-08:00

As a new year gift to over 11,300 lecturers and professors of first-grade colleges in the state, the government on Thursday implemented the revised pay scale for them as per the University Grants Commission (UGC) recommendations.With this, the salaries of lecturers and professors working in government first grade colleges, aided first grade colleges and constituent colleges of universities will see a substantial hike.As per the revised scale, the starting salary of a lecturer will be Rs 31,300 per month and that of a professor will be Rs 63,500, including all perks.Not just that, they will also get differential pay for 51 months as arrears as the revised pay scale will come into force with retrospective effect from January 1, 2006.However, the revised pay scale for the part-time lecturers whose services were regularised through special guidelines by the government will be applicable from the date on which they had acquired eligibility to be lecturer as per UGC guidelines.The burden on the state exchequer due to the implementation of the pay scale is estimated to be around Rs 200 crore.

The Centre will bear 80 per cent of the expenses due to payment of the arrears and the hiked component of the salary till the end of this financial year.Announcing this at a press conference on Thursday, Higher Education Minister Aravind Limbavali called upon the teaching community to perform to their best abilities as the government had given everything they (lecturers) wanted. “My only plea to the teaching community is to perform their duties effectively,” he said.To a question, he replied that the government would release arrears as soon as the Centre released 50 per cent of its share towards the arrears. He added that all arrears would be paid in cash.

Meanwhile, the government has increased the retirement age of the teaching staff in universities from 60 to 62 years, with effect from September 25, 2009.Though it has shown magnanimity in revising salaries, the government has put some riders too for the selection of teaching staff in first grade colleges.From July 7, 2009, MPhil degree will not be considered as a criterion for recruitment of lecturers. The lecturers appointed before this date will be promoted as professors only after they complete PhD, he said.The government has also changed the nomenclature of the teaching staff of colleges. As per the new nomenclature, the lecturers will now be called assistant professors.

With the revised pay scale, an associate professor in Bangalore will get a total pay of Rs31,300 each month, while a professor will take home Rs63,500. The house rent and city compensation allowances are also increased to make it on par with the UGC scale. The college teachers are also eligible for pension, leave travel concession and medical allowance like any other government employee, Limbavali said.An order is also issued to increase the age limit for retirement from 60 to 62 years applicable to the university teaching staff with effect from September 25, 2009. The Higher Education Department has classified the teaching staff into three new categories: Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and Professor.

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Assam Civil Service decided to observe a one-hour pen-down strike

2009-12-25T22:47:00.000-08:00

Expressing dissatisfaction over the recommendations of the State Pay Commission, the Coordination Committee of Assam Class-I Service Association has urged Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi to ‘ensure justice and a fair deal’ for the officers by awarding a ‘respectable pay structure and allowances’. In a memorandum to the Chief Minister, thecommittee said that the Pay Commission recommendations fell way beyond securing pay parity with the Central Government employees - something promised by the State Government. Pointing out that the pay disparity which starts when a new entrant joins State Government service in the rank of a Class-I officer would worsen when he/she in completes 14 years of continuous service.

“The discrepancy in pay structure has disheartened all sections of Class-I officers, which could be detrimental to the development of the State,” it said.

Again, the committee said, the grade pay band of (4) in the Sixth Assam Pay Commission ranges from Rs 5,400 to a maximum of Rs 7,400 whereas in the Central Government the same is from Rs 5,400 to Rs 7,600 to start with, and Rs 8,700 after 14 years of service.

The committee was also critical of the annual increment of one per cent of the total pay in the pay band, saying that the increment and the corresponding grade pay is too insufficient and that the Commission’s recommendation for introducing new schemes of ‘increment based on performance’ is likely to cause dissatisfaction among the employees as “there is likelihood of assessing one’s performance by the assessing officer on the latter’s personal likes or otherwise.”

The committee called for awarding yearly increment at the rate of three per cent as is the case with Central Government employees. It further urged the Chief Minister to implement the allowances such as medical, city compensatory, daily, rural and difficult area, hill, traveling, conveyance, house rent, leave travel concession, etc., at par with Central Government employees.

The Assam Civil Service Officers’ Association has also expressed its “deep anguish, disappointment and dissatisfaction” over the pay panel recommendations as well as the report of the Committee constituted to examine the report of the pay panel.

In a statement, the association said that in spite of numerous representations, memorandums and submissions made to the commission and the committee, the pay scales and allowances granted to the Assam Civil Service are not commensurate with the “nature of service and the premier status of the ACS.”

The association also expressed concern over what it said were sweeping remarks in respect of ACS cadres made by the commission which at the same time failed to give adequate consideration to the submissions of theassociation.

The association decided to observe a one-hour pen-down strike from 12 pm to 1 pm on January 5.

The Coordination Committee of Assam Class-I Service Association represents ten officers’ associations, i.e., Assam Medical Service Association, Assam PWD Engineering Association, Assam Agricultural Officers’ Association, Assam Finance Service Association, Assam Engineering Service Association (Irrigation and Water Resource), All Assam Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Service Association, Animal Husbandry and Dairy Officers’ Association, Association of Engineering Officers of Factory Inspectorate in Assam, and Assam Boiler Directorate Officers’ Association.

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Bihar government's decision in implementing the 6th Wage Commission

2009-12-23T22:46:00.000-08:00

Home Secretary Amir Subhani on Monday presented Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi a report prepared by the Pay Committee that would determine the government’s decision in implementing the 6th Wage Commission.

The Nitish administration is expected to mull over the report at the upcoming Cabinet meet in Rajgir at the end of this month.

Sources said all indications pointed to a ’New Year Gift’ by the state government to the people of Bihar.

The Pay Committee was formed a year ago. Led by Chief Secretary Shubhkirti Majumdar, the Committee also included Bihar Development Commissioner and the Secretary of Finance.

Modi said the government would carefully study the committee report and take proper steps to implement the recommendations made in it.

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Madhya Pradesh government has approved sixth pay commission scale

2009-12-21T22:55:00.000-08:00

The Madhya Pradesh government has approved sixth pay commission scale for the vice-chancellors, registrars, teachers, librarians and sports officers in the universities of the state.

The universities receiving block grant from the state government would be eligible get the revised pay scales with retrospective effect from January 1, 2006, an official release here said.

State Higher Education Minister Laxmikant Sharma stated that payment of arrears accruing due to revised pay scales would be given from the salary of September 2008 which would be payable in October 2008. Separate orders are being issued in connection with arrears from January 1, 2006 to August 31, 2008.

As per directives of the Union government and University Grants Commission, orders had already been issued to provide sixth pay commission scale to college teachers. The Madhya Pradesh government had appealed to the Union Government to make available 80 percent of the expenditure on the scheme, while the rest 20 percent would be shared by the state government.

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IBA Discussions is likely to be held in the first week of January

2009-12-21T22:54:00.000-08:00

It is reported that the IBA has constituted a Small Committee of 5 members,(including 2 from the Confederation and one each from the other Officers Organizations) which will go into the nitty gritty of all the details connected with the construction of scales, apportionment of the cost on various headings including the superannuation benefits etc., so that it can meet as frequently as required and keep the working ready for the Negotiating Team for finalisation of the settlement.

It is further reported that next round of discussions with IBA is likely to be held in the first week of January 2010 on a date mutually convenient to all concerned. The Small Committee will meet shortly and workout the modalities for the purpose of finalizing their proposals for the consideration of the Negotiating Team.

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General Insurers Association called for a new round of talks

2009-12-21T22:50:00.000-08:00

The General Insurers (Public Sector) Association of India (GIPSA) has called for a new round of talks Tuesday with the unions of four government-owned non-life insurance companies after a 15 percent offer of hike in wages was rejected.

The last round of talks, held in July this year, had collapsed as the union had demanded a 40 percent wage hike to have parity with the private sector.

“Wage revision in the public sector general insurance companies fell due in August 2007. However, the talks have been going on at a snail’s pace even as the companies have been logging impressive growth rates,” All India Insurance Employees Association (AIIEA) secretary J. Gurumurthy told IANS.

He said the four public sector firms - National Insurance, New India Assurance, Oriental Insurance and United India employing around 100,000 people - together logged a growth of 11 percent and procured a premium of Rs.13,128 crore during the first eight months of the current fiscal at a time when many private insurers registered negative growth.

“We hope the management comes out with acceptable offers during the Dec 22 (Tuesday) talks in Kolkata that would meet the genuine aspirations of the employees,” he said.

“GIPSA may offer 17.5 percent increase in line with what was offered in the banking sector which we will reject.”

Demanding the merger of four firms into one corporation, Gurumurthy said: “Unlike in the banking sector, employees are in favour of merger here. More than the banks, size is of major importance in insurance sector which in turn would enable investments in infrastructure.” According to him, wage talks in Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) broke down as employees were dissatisfied with the management offer of 17.5 percent.

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Jammu and Kashmir Government to provide the remaining benefits

2009-12-17T23:00:00.000-08:00

Giving ultimatum to the Jammu and Kashmir Government to provide the remaining benefits under the Sixth Pay Commission before the year-end as promised, at least 4.5 lakh employees across the State would go on strike on December 23.
The employees, under the banner of Employees’ Joint Action Committee (EJAC), will also hold protest demonstrations to press for the implementation of the pending Pay panel recommendations, already accepted by the Government in principle.

President EJAC, Abdul Qayoom Wani, said the employees will go on a State-wide day-long strike on December 23. "The employees are ready to teach the Government a lesson for playing tricks and wasting time unnecessarily. If the Government continues its non-seriousness, there will be a complete lockout on Dec 30,” said Wani, threatening that the month of January 2010 will be very hectic for the Government," he said.

“If our demands are not fulfilled in the coming days, the month of January 2010 will be painstaking and harmful for the Government. We can go to any extent after December to stop Government backtrack from the already accepted 6th Pay panel benefits,” threatened Wani.

The employee’s union is demanding that the retirement age of State Government employees be raised from 58-60 years, at par with Central Government officials. In addition, it also wants regularizing of services of dailywage and adhoc workers, merging of Cost of Living Allowance into the Dearness Allowance, uniform Housing Rent Allowance as that of Central Government employees, release of 40 per cent arrears and extending the 6th Pay panel benefits to Local Bodies, Municipal Corporations and Public Sector Undertakings.

“Government is absolutely non-serious. We had an agreement with the Government on July 18 and the benefits were promised till October 31 this year. But till date, there is no response from the Government while the price rise has created havoc everywhere,” said Wani, adding no discrimination will be tolerated and protest demos will be held in Jammu, Srinagar and Ladakh as well.According to the EJAC spokesperson, an important meeting will be held on Dec 19 at 1 pm at Municipal Office.The Financial Commissioner was not available for comments.

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State Bank of India Officers wants to have a separate wage structure

2009-12-17T22:56:00.000-08:00

Peeved over what is being seen as a disparity in the wage structure of the banking industry vis-a-vis government employees, State Bank of India (SBI) Officers’ Association (Bengal circle) wants SBI to have a separate wage structure on the lines of the Reserve Bank of India.

Stating this, Sakti Kumar Haldar, General Secretary, SBIOA (Bengal circle), said here at a press conference that the entry-level monthly salary for a clerk in the banking industry was Rs. 7,712 as compared to Rs. 12,793 for a government clerk. The gap was wider at the executive level, he said.

In addition, three lakh employees of SBI now felt deprived on account of the latest 17.5 per cent salary revision in the banking industry which Mr. Haldar said was discriminatory against SBI employees.

He explained that this was so on account of the denial of the benefit of additional cost being paid to other banks for payment of pension as a second option.

Mr. Haldar said that due to a prevalent ceiling on gratuity payments, the employees retired with a leaner purse as compared to other bank employees.

On the stand of the All India State Bank Officers Federation on these issues, he said the AISBOF along with the Staff Federation had already held initial discussions with the SBI management to resolve the issues.

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Kerala Chief Minister proposed revision of pay scales of government employees

2009-12-14T23:15:00.000-08:00

Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan has said that the proposed revision of pay scales of government employees and teachers will be implemented next year.

The Chief Minister was talking to the media after discussions on pay revision with the organisations of employees and teachers here on Friday.

Mr. Achuthanandan said the government stood by the principle of pay revision every five years. That would mean that the revision would have effect from July 7, 2009.

He said the organisations which had participated in the discussions had expressed divergent views on pay revision and appointment of commission to recommend the pay scales. The Cabinet would decide on the constitution and terms of reference of the commission after considering all the views.

Asked about the demand of employees for interim relief, Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac said the question did not arise now as the arrears in dearness allowance had been cleared. The union affiliated to the State Employees and Teachers Organisation and other pro-United Democratic Front unions boycotted the fag end of the discussion protesting against the refusal of the government to grant interim relief and promise parity with Central scales.

While they called for a protest march to the Secretariat on December 17, the pro-Left Democratic Front Joint Council withdrew the march planned by it, welcoming the decision to appoint pay revision commission.

The unions briefly staged demonstrations at the venue of the discussions in favour and against the stand taken by the government.

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The span of scales increased to 40 up to Grade XVI

2009-12-14T23:14:00.000-08:00

The span of scales increased to 40 up to Grade XVI from the present level of 33 with suitable increases in the higher scales to avoid stagnation and in the unlikely event of stagnation, three stagnation increaments were recommended.

Regarding Dearness Allowance, the commission stated that the existing practice of following the Union Government in sanctioning DA twice a year be continued. As the Central rate of DA were based on DA merged scales of January one, 2006 and the DA as on July 7,2008 merged in the scales proposed for the State Government employees, the Commission recommends a conversion factor of 0.856 for sanction of DA from Jaunuary one, 2009.

The Commission adopted the existing rate of House Rent Allowance (HRA) at 30 per cent, 20 per cent, 12.5 per cent and ten per cent for different places and increased the ceiling from Rs 6,000 to Rs 12,000 in the case of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation(GHMC) and Rs 8,000 for the rest of the state, pay scales of some categories of employees in revenue, commercial taxes, excise and transport were improved.

The pay scales of uniformed services, including Police has been improved in certain categories and the existing parties were broadly maintained between Police and other uniformed services. The pay scales of teachers were ratinalised and improved based on the Regrouping done in 1982. The scales of veterinarians and Ayush Doctors improved and relatives established between Ayush doctors and veterinarians.

On the Automatic Advancement Scheme, the pay commission recommended increases in pay at intervals of 8, 16 and 24 years.

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Pay Commission for Andhra Pradesh Government employees

2009-12-14T23:13:00.000-08:00

The Pay Commission for Government employees, including teachers has recommended a minimum pay of Rs 6,700 and a maximum of Rs 55,660 per month effective from July 1, 2008 with a fitment benefit of 27 per cent.

The pay commission report tabled in the State Assembly and Legislative Council on 11th of this month, stated that the new scales were evolved by merging the Dearness Allowance with Basic pay as on July 1, 2008.

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Retired soldiers and officers have returned their medals

2009-12-11T23:26:00.000-08:00

Retired soldiers and officers have returned their medals during last few years. Nine cardboard boxes full of medals have been received. In protest against non-acceptance of their demands of ‘One Rank, One Pension’.

Although the ‘One Rank One Pension’ demand has not been accepted, keeping in view the spirit of the matter, the committee constituted has recommended substantial improvement in pension of pre Jan 01, 2006 PBOR pensioners and bring pre October 10, 1997 pensioners on par with post October 10, 1997 pensioners This information was given by Minister of State for Defence Shri MM Pallam Raju in written reply to Shri Shivanand Tiwari and Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad in Rajya Sabha today.

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Salary arrears pending for the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan

2009-12-11T23:21:00.000-08:00

Resentment is brewing among the teachers of Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) against the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan for non-payment of their salary arrears pending after the revisions made by the Sixth Pay Commission.

The general secretary of All India Kendriya Vidyalaya Teachers Association (AIKVTA) S S Malik said more than three years have passed since the central pay commission declared the pay revision.

“Even the state governments have paid the arrears to their employees. But the KV teachers working under HRD Ministry are yet to get their arrears,” he alleged.

He said that though 40 per cent of the amount was released in April, the rest 60 per cent is still pending. “We have appealed the HRD Minister to make budgetary provisions for the same and release the money immediately. But no response has come yet,” he informed.

Sources said while there are about 950 KVs in the country, the Bhubaneswar region comprising Orissa and Jharkhand has over 50 KVs.

The KV teachers are also annoyed following a recent decision asking them to forgo their 10-day winter vacation and coach the bright and weak students of their respective schools by taking extra classes.

The decision was taken during the recent conference of principals of KVs. Though the teachers are yet to be intimated about it officially, the AIKVTA has opposed the decision.

This apart, the KV vocational staffs - teachers and Class-IV employees - have opposed another decision of the Sanghatan which bars them from their earned leave (EL) and forces them to opt for half pay leave (HPL) on production of medical certificates countersigned by the chief medical officer.

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Gujarat State government employees to fulfil their demands from 15 days

2009-12-08T22:48:00.000-08:00

The state government employees have given 15 days’ time to the authorities to fulfil their demands seeking implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission’s recommendations or be ready for intensified protest in the coming days.

Gujarat State Employees Coordination Committee (GSECC) spokesman R A Patel said the coordination committee of the government employees will meet in Gandhinagar in a week to chalk out the future course of action.

Patel said the details of the future protest programmes cannot not be disclosed at present, but they will be intensified to get the demands met.

According to Patel, more than 80,000 government employees took part in Sunday’s rally while nearly 1.5 lakh were stopped on their way to the venue in the city.

He said the reports of political leaders’ blessing to the rally were baseless.

Shankersinh Vagehla, Suresh Mehta, Madhusudan Mistry and Pankaj Shah were among the several Congress leaders detained in the morning - prior to the rally - for violating prohibitory orders.

On the other hand, the leaders of the coordination committee of the agitating government employees have distanced themselves from politicians who have their declared support to the rally.

“We have not invited any political person to attend our rally and if they were found trying to take part in our programme, the police should perform its duty,” said committee chairman Vishnubhai Patel.

Prabuddh Nagarik Shakti Manch spearheaded by former Union Minister Shankersinh Vaghela and former Chief Minister Suresh Mehta said it was surprising to see the government scared just because “we support the cause of the government employees”.

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Indian Banks Association proposed nationwide pay revision

2009-12-08T22:46:00.000-08:00

The core committee constituted by the Indian Banks Association (IBA) to calculate the modalities involved in the proposed nationwide pay revision is likely to give its report within 90 days.

Banks and staff unions had settled on a 17.5 per cent salary hike, to benefit about 702,000 public sector employees, besides agreeing to make 332,000 serving and retired employees eligible for pension.

In an interaction with Business Standard, Union Bank of India’s chairman & managing director, M V Nair, also the chairman of IBA, said he expected the report in three months.

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Meghalaya government employees will get 40 per cent of the arrears

2009-12-08T22:43:00.000-08:00

The Meghalaya government employees will get 40 per cent of the arrears of the revised pay scale in this financial year, state?s Finance Minister Mukul Sangma told the assembly today.

"The state government has implemented the revised pay scales with effect from January 1, 2007, and the new pay scales have been authorised to be drawn by the employees from September this year, he said replying to a question.

The government, Sangma said, proposes to release 40 per cent of the arrear during 2009-10 subject to availability of funds.

"The balance 60 per cent will be considered as and when funds are available," he said.

The financial implication of the pay revision of the employees involves an additional liability of Rs 332 crore annually, taking the total annual salary burden to Rs 1683.16 crore.

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