7th Pay Commission: Panel proposed scrapping 10-year concept of salary, allowances hike
The 7th Central Pay
Commission (CPC) suggested something drastic in its almost 900-page report,
enough to upset about 47 lakh Central government employees and about 52 lakh
pensioners. It recommended to do away with the practice of pay commissions
altogether.
The Commission, headed
by Justice (Retd) Ashok Kumar Mathur, had instead proposed one that should be
more aligned to performance.
"The concept of
separate grade pay has been done away with and the grade pay at all levels has
been subsumed into the pay matrix...It is also recommended that the matrix may
be reviewed periodically without waiting for the long period of ten
years," according to the report.
"It is suggested
that this should be made the basis for revision of that matrix periodically
without waiting for another Pay Commission," it added.
The Cabinet rejected
the key recommendation, reports The Hindu.
"The reforms
recommended by the pay commission are effectively killed ... an opportunity to
rationalise pays and link them to performance, and introduce meritocracy has
been lost," the Chennai-based daily quoted a senior finance ministry
official as saying.
It may be recalled that
the Narendra Modi government has appointed a panel to look into the grievances
of trade unions that are upset with the salary hike recommendation by the 7th
CPC. The unions have demanded Rs. 26,000 as the minimum monthly salary at the
entry level as against Rs. 18,000 proposed by the Commission.
The unions have
deferred their proposed July 11 indefinite strike for four months in view of
the government forming a high-level committee to revisit the pay panel's
proposals after meeting union representatives on June 30.
"They (trade union
representatives) had requested that certain issues raised by them in relation
to the pay scales and other recommendations of the Pay Commission be allowed to
be raised before a Committee of Secretaries looking into different aspects of
grievances of employees in relation to the Pay Commission recommendations.
"The Ministers
assured the Union leaders that the issues raised by them would be considered by
a High Level Committee," the government said in a statement on Wednesday.
The 7th CPC was
appointed to look into the salary and related issues applicable to Central
Government employees (industrial and non-industrial); employees belonging to
the All India Services; employees of union territories; officers and employees
of the Indian Audit and Accounts Department; members of the regulatory bodies
(excluding the RBI) set up under the Acts of Parliament and officers and
employees of the Supreme Court.
In addition to Justice
(Retd) Mathur, the Commission had two members — Vivek Rae and Dr. Rathin Roy,
and Meena Agarwal as secretary. It was assisted by 16 consultants and many
assistants.
Source :
http://www.ibtimes.co.in