CONFEDERATION REQUESTED INTERVENTION OF
MP’S
COPY OF THE LETTER SENT TO ALL
MP’S
CONFEDERATION
OF CENTRAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES AND WORKERS
First Floor
North Avenue Post Office Building
New Delhi. 110
001.
Website:
confederationhq. Blogspot.com.
E
mail:confederation06@yahoo.co.in.
Dated:
4th February, 2014
D/14/2014(2)(MP)
Dear
Sir,
The Confederation of Central Government employees and workers is the apex level
organisation of all Federations/Associations/Unions of CGEs other than in the
Railways and Defence establishments. In our last National Executive meeting, we
were constrained to decide to call upon our members to organise TWO DAYSs strike
on 12th and 13th February, 2014 in pursuance of our
charter of demands.
It
was in the wake of a strike action in 1960s by the Central Govt. Employees, the
Govt. of India set up the permanent negotiating machinery called JCM so that the
employees will be able to raise their demands and grievances and seek settlement
thereof through dialogue. This machinery has now come to a standstill as the
Govt. does not convene the meetings of the councils at the Departmental levels
on one pretext or the other. A new set of rules were promulgated in 1993 to
grant recognition to Service Associations. Many Ministries, despite the
employees organizations abiding by the stipulated conditions, have not afforded
recognition to the Associations/Federations, thereby closing all channels of
communication. The JCM had the facility of referring the issues on which the
Government could not agree upon to the Board of Arbitration. The decision/award
of the Board was binding on all parties. However, of late the Government had
been rejecting the awards in favour of the employees on the specious plea of
adverse impact on national economy by presenting resolutions in the Parliament.
We need not emphasise the unethical character of this approach which undermines
the confidence of the employees in the fairness of the system. .
The new contributory pension scheme was
introduced by the Government on the plea that the pension liability has become
unbearable and is a drag on the exchequer. In our Memorandum to the Prime
Minister, we had raised several issues and had pointed out that the financial
outflow on account of the new scheme will be much more than the existing defined
benefit scheme. We had indicated in our memorandum quite a number of aspects
which would be detrimental to the interest of workers. In the debate on PFRDA
Bill in the last session of Parliament. We could notice that quite number of MPs
had demanded for the withdrawal of the bill itself as it only benefits the Stock
market operators and entrepreneurs. Even the Standing Committee’s suggestion for
incorporation of a minimum return to the employees was turned down by the
Government. We are certain that the new contributory pension scheme shall be a
drag on the exchequer and the scheme will turn out to be a conduct for the flow
of the poor employees’ savings to the corporate houses. We appeal to you to
raise your voice in the Parliament against the new contributory Pension Scheme
for its anti employee and anti national characteristic. The real purport of the
bill is reflected in the decision to allow FDI to the extent of 40% in this
sector. The said decision has facilities outflow of Indian savings for
investment outside the country.
The 6th CPC recommendations and its implementation had
given rise to various anomalies. The employees genuinely felt that the said
anomalies would be removed through discussions for which the Government had set
up a committee. The Committee despite meeting on four occasions had not been
able to settle the issues; nor could it be referred to the Arbitrator. The
6th CPC recommendations were implemented with effect from 1.1.2006.
The revision of wages was due on 1.1.2011. The Government has not so far come
forward to set up the 7th CPC.
It had been the age- old practice to revise the wages of Central
Government employees as and when substantial erosion takes place in the real
value of wages. The 5th CPC opined that as and when the DA Component
in wages crosses over 50% such revision must take place and the said Component
of DA must be merged with pay. Accordingly the 6th CPC was set up and
wages revised in 2006. On 1st January 2011 the Dearness allowance
component in the emoluments of the employees had reached 51% The Government
had been dilly dallying the wage revision and merger of DA with Pay which would
have helped the employees to combat the soaring price rise. On 12th
December 2012, the employees went on a day’s strike which received magnificent
response from the rank and fill of the workers. The unbridled inflation and the
consequent Price rise has made the existing Pay and allowances incapable of
making both ends meet. The Government announced its intention of setting up
7th CPC thereafter but no follow-up action ensued, leaving the
employees with no alternative but to declare a 48 hours strike on
12th and 13th February 2014. As on 1.1.2014 the DA
component has crossed over 100%. The Government attitude has become untenable.
On the request of the Government, the Staff side had submitted the draft terms
of reference for 7th CPC. They had also raised the grant of
interim Relief, which normally precedes the notification of any CPC. The Staff
Side of the National Council had demanded the inclusion of Gramin Dak Sevaks
within the ambit of the 7th CPOC, an issue which was at the core of
discussion earlier in 2006. The Government has not indicated its approach on
this vital issue so far as a result of which about three lakh GDS employees are
in anxiety and desperation.
The Neo-liberal policies brought in its wake the unethical practice of contract
labour system and employing casual workers for perennial and permanent jobs,
which is strictly prohibited by the law of the land. Government departments
witnessed an overdose of this policy in the period between 2004-2014. More than
one third of the work force in Govt. Sector is now composed of such a informal
workers. They are provided with pittance of wages and the huge gap in wages of
the regular and the informal employees has been the root cause of
inter-personnel tension and many fraudulent ventures. Government functions are
supported supposed to have an element of security and accountability. The
removal of this ill- advised system had been a cry often falling on deaf ears.
Besides there are quite a number of casual workers employed to carry out
perennial and permanent jobs. They are to be regularised. In the postal
department alone they number about 3 lakhs called as GDS. Enclosed is a brief
note on Charter of demands, the non-settlement of which has resulted in the loss
of confidence in the system itself and consequent compulsion to tread the path
of straggle. Many of these issues are incorporated in the agenda of National
Council for not less than ten years back, begging settlement. . The Government
has made procrastination an art in itself and allow the issues longer on for
years.
We seek your solidarity and support and request you to kindly raise
these issues in the Parliament and ask the Government to settle the demands of
the Government employees.
Thanking you
Yours faithfully,
M.KRISHNAN
Secretary General
CONFEDERATION OF CENTRAL
GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES AND WORKERS
North Avenue Post office, Firstg floor
New
Delhi. 110 001.
Website: confederationhq. Blogspot.com.
Dated: 4th Feb. 2014.
EXPLANATORY NOTE ON DEMANDS
Item No. 1. Revision of wage with effect from.
1.,01..2011.
The
present wage structure of the Central Govt. Employees has been made on the basis
of the 6th Central Pay Commission's recommendations. The
6th CPC introduced a new concept in the form of Pay band and Grade
Pay. The recommendations of the Commission were implemented with effect from
1.1.2006 in the case of Pay and in the case of allowances with effect from 1.9.
2008. In the case of Central Public Sector undertakings, the wage revisions
normally takes place after every five years. The 5th CPC in the case
of Central Government employees recommended wage revision in every 10 years. In
the past wage revision has been linked to the extent of erosion of real wages.
The degree of inflation in the economy determines the pace of erosion of the
real value of wages. The retail prices of those commodities which go into the
making of minimum wages have risen by about 160% from 1.1.2006 to 1.1. 2011,
whereas the D.A. compensation in the case of Central Government employees on
that date had been just 51%. It is also an acknowledged fact that the
6th CPC had computed the minimum wage by suppressing the retail price
of these commodities in the market on the specious plea that official statistics
of the retail prices of these commodities were not available. They therefore,
computed the retail price by increasing the wholesale price by 20% for each of
the commodity whereas the actual retail price in the market was 60% more than
the wholesale price. While in the case of Group B,C & D employees, the
Commission applied a multiplication factor of 1.86 for arriving at the revised
pay structure, in the case of Group A Officers, the factor was ranging from 2.36
to 3 times. In the matter of fitment formula also, unlike recommended by the
5th CPC, the 6th CPC adopted varying percentages whereby
the officers in Group A were given rise extending from 42 to 49%, whereas the
employees in Group B,C,D were granted only 40%. While implementing the
Commission's recommendations, the Government further accentuated the
discrimination further. The recommendations of the 6th CPC when
implemented gave rise to very many glaring anomalies. They were assured to be
looked into and settled through negotiations in the JCM. The effectiveness of
JCM as a potent forum to settle issues has been eroded over the years. Thus,
though the National Anomaly Committee met 4-5 times, it could not settle any
major issues.
The
minimum wage determined by the 6th CPC was at a far lesser amount
than what an unskilled worker is entitled to. Morevoer, the Commission assigned
the so determined minimum wage to be the wage of a skilled worker.. It
excluded persons below matriculation qualification from the purview of
Government employment. In a country where one third people are illiterate, such
controversial recommendations have only gone to absolve the State from its
solemn responsibility to provide employment to the persons at the lower strata
of the society. The wage structure evolved by the 6th CPC deviated
drastically from the concepts emerged from the deliberations over decades in the
matter of wage determination of civil servants and is beset with innumerable
anomalies necessitating a thorough overhaul , which can only be attempted by
setting up another Commission with appropriate terms of reference.
The
Gramin Dak Sewaks were excluded from the purview of the 6th Central
Pay Commission as the Postal Department took an erroneous view that they are not
Central Government employees. The 4th CPC had categorically stated
that they ought to have been included within the purview of the Commission's
jurisdiction but chose to go by the Postal Department's decision ultimately.
the GDS constitute the largest chunk of the Postal Workers. The exclusion of
GDS from the purview of the Pay Commission being unjust, discriminatory and
bereft of any logic, the next Pay Commission when it is set up must have the
jurisdiction to recommend on wage structure and service conditions of the
GDS.
Wage
revision in all public Sector undertakings through Collective bargaining takes
place once in five years. On the same analogy, the wage revision of the Central
Government employees must be after every five years and the Government must
therefore set up the 7th CPC immediately.
Item No. 2. Merger of DA with pay:
The
wage revision of the Central Government employees had always been through the
setting up of Pay Commissions. Since the wage revision exercise involves
inquiring into various aspects of wage determination and service conditions of
the Government employees the Government had been appointing Pay Commissions for
it was considered a better suited system. Such inquiry through setting up of
Commissions had been a time consuming process. The 3rd,
4th and 5th Central Pay Commissions had taken more than
three years to submit their reports. The 6th CPC however, submitted
its report in the time frame provided to it i.e. 18 months. Since the earlier
Commissions had covered many aspects of the principles of wage determination and
the periodicity of such revision had come down, the exercise might not now
require a longer period of time as was the case earlier Even then the
Commission will have to be given a reasonable time frame to go into the matter
judiciously for the 6th CPC recommendations when implemented has
given rise to large number of anomalies and cadre related grievances. The
methodology adopted for compensating the erosion in the real value of wages in
the in the interregnum period had always been though the mechanism of merger of
a portion of DA. The 5th CPC had recommended that the DA must be
merged with pay and treated as pay for computing all allowances as and when the
percentage of Dearness compensation exceeds 50%. Accordingly even before the
setting up of the 6th CPC the DA to the extent of 50% was merged with
pay. It is pertinent to mention that even this benefit was denied to the GDS.
As on 1.1.201, the Dearness compensation was 65% The suggestion for merger of DA
to partially compensate the erosion in the real wages was first mooted by the
Gadgil Committee in the post 2nd Pay Commission period. The
3rd CPC had recommended such merger when the Cost of Living index
crossed over 272 points i.e. 72 points over and above the base index adopted for
the pay revision. In other words, the recommendation of the 3rd CPC
was to merge the DA when it crossed 36%. The Government in the National Council
JCM at the time of negotiation initially agreed to merge 60% DA and later the
whole of the DA before the 4th CPC was set up. The 5th
CPC merged 98% of DA with pay. It is, therefore, necessary that the Government
takes steps to merge atleast 50% of DA with pay to compensate the erosion of the
real value of wages immediately.
Item No. 3. Compassionate appointments
On
the plea of a Supreme Court directive, Govt. introduced a 5% ceiling on the
compassionate appointments. When the matter was taken up by the Staff Side in
the National Council the Government was unable to produce any such direction of
the Supreme Court.. Despite that, the official side refused to withdraw the said
instructions limiting the appointments to 5% of the available vacancies. In one
of the National Council meetings, presided over by the Cabinet Secretary solemn
assurance was given to the Staff Side that the issue will be revisited in the
light of the discussion, but nothing happened thereafter. It is pertinent to
mention in this connection that the compassionate appointments in the Railways
continue to be operated without any such ceiling. In the Department of Posts
hundreds of candidates selected by Selection Committee were denied jobs. The
list of selected candidates was scrapped. These candidates approached the Court
and obtained a favourable order. But the Court directive was not acted upon.
The Government has chosen to dilly dally by filing SLP in the Supreme Court.
When the Central Administrative Tribunals were established, it was with the
intent of expeditious settlement of disputes on service matters. Even recently
the Prime Minister's office ordered that it would not be open for various
Ministries to appeal against the orders of the Tribunal as a matter of course
and efforts must be to explore the ways of acceptances of the judgements of the
Tribunal. In the light of this directive, the SLP ought to have been withdrawn.
The standing Committee on Department of Personnel in one of their report has
termed the scheme of Compassionate ground appointments as a sacred assurance to
a fresh entrant that if he dies in harness, his family shall not be left in
lurch. Such an assurance is being breached by the provisions of limiting such
appointments to 5% of vacancies. This condition, therefore, must be done away
with.
Item No. 4(a). Absorption of GDS as regular postal
employees
The
postal Department employs the largest number of Government employees, next to
Railways and Defence. Nearly half of its workforce is called the Grameen Dak
Sewaks, the new nomenclature given for the Extra Departmental Agents. The
system of EDAs was evolved by the British Colonial Government to sustain a
postal system at a cheaper cost especially in rural areas. Despite the
enactment of very many legislations to prohibit the exploitation of workers, the
Government continued with this system. No doubt in the post independent era, at
the instance and persuasion of the Unions of regular employees, certain benefits
were accorded to them. Till 1963, the GDS or the Extra Departmental Agents were
treated as Government employees and were covered by the service conditions
applicable to civil servants. However, the Department of Post reversed this
position thereafter and contended that they are not Central Government
employees. The Honourable Supreme Court in 1977 declared that they are holders
of Civil Posts. Justice Talwar Committee appointed by the Govt. to look into
the issues pertaining to GDS declared that the GDS are holders of Civil posts
and all benefits similar to regular employees must be extended to them.
However, the Government did not accept this recommendation of the committee
which they themselves set up. On the specific suggestion of the Postal
Department, the Government set up a separate Committee called the Natarajamurthy
Committee to go into their service conditions and suggest improvement on the
lines of the recommendations of the 6th CPC. The recommendations of
this Committee were totally disappointing and the GDS in the post 6th
CPC era is worse of. Instead of utilising the service of GDS for the welfare
schemes of the State in rural areas by converting them as regular employees, the
Department caused injustice to them by acting upon the recommendations of the
Natarajamurthy Committee. Recently, the Postal Department has decided that
the vacancies in the Cadre of Postmen, and MTS would not be fully made available
for promotion to the GDS and an element of open direct recruitment has been
introduced. This has decelerated the meagre chance of the GDS being a regular
Postal employee further. In order to ensure that their grievances are properly
addressed, the Postal Department must be directed to earmark all the existing
vacancies in the cadre of Postmen and MTS to the eligible GDS for promotion and
a scheme is evolved to absorb the GDS as regular full time Government
employees.
Item No. 4(b) Regularisation of daily rated
workers.
Regularisation of Casual/Contingent/daily rated
workers.
Due
to the ban on creation of posts and recruitment of personnel that continued for
a very long period and the consequent strain on the existing workers, many
Departmental heads had to recruit personnel on daily rated basis or as casual
workers. Thus, almost 25% of the present workforce in Governmental organisations
are casual workers deployed to do the permanent and perennial nature of jobs,
contrary to the prohibition of such unfair labour practices by the law of the
land. In Fifties and Sixties, even the casual workers who had been employed to
do the casual and non perennial jobs used to get priority for regular employment
as and when vacancy for such permanent recruitment arises. Thousands of persons
are now recruited as casual workers and kept as such for years together. They
are paid pittance of a salary with no benefits like provident fund, dearness
allowance, other compensatory allowances etc. In order to ensure that they do
not get the benefit of regularisation, these workers are technically discharged
for a few days to be employed afresh again. The modus operandi differs from one
department to another. While in some organisations, they are recruited through
employment exchanges in others the functions are contracted out. Not only the
quality of work suffers but it is also an inhuman exploitation of the workers
given the serious situation of unemployment that exists in the country. While
the permanent solution is to sanction the necessary posts and resort to regular
recruitment, the Government should evolve a scheme by which these
casual/contingent/daily rated workers are made regular workers with all the
concomitant benefits available for regular Government employees. Pending
finalisation of such a scheme for regularisation, the non regular employees
recruited for meeting the exigencies of work must be paid pro-rata salary on par
with the similarly placed regular employees on the principle of equal pay for
equal work.
Item No.5. Functioning of the JCM.
It
was in the wake of the indefinite strike action of 1960, the JCM was set up as a
negotiating forum to expedite settlement of demands and problems of employees.
On the pretext of the promulgation of the new CCS(RSA)Rules, most of the
departments suspended the operation of the Departmental Councils. Even after
complying with the requisite formalities, in many departments,
Associations/Federations are yet to be recognized. Wherever the recognition
process was completed and orders issued granting recognition, no meetings of the
Departmental Councils are held. Inspite of raising the issue in the National
Council on several occasions by the Staff Side, nothing tangible has been done
to ensure that the councils are made functional.
The
National Council is, as per the scheme, to meet once in four months. It meets
after several years, the system of concluding on the agenda in the meeting in
which it is raised has been totally abandoned with the result that number of
issues have been kept pending for indefinite period of time. The non-
functioning of the Council and the consequent non- redressal of grievances has
led to agitations including strike action in many departments. The
6th CPC recommendations were given effect to in September, 2008. The
anomalies arising therefrom (which is in large numbers) ought to have been
settled as per the agreement by Feb,. 2010. Barring one or two items, no
settlement has been brought about on a large number of anomalies till date.
In
the wake of the General Strike action on 28th Feb. 2012, the Joint
Secretary (Estt.) in the Department of Personnel wrote in her demi-official
communication addressed to all Secretaries of the Government of India as under,
which is contrary to facts but also misleading too.
"Joint consultative machinery for Central Government employees is
already functioning. This scheme has been introduced with the object t of
promoting harmonious relations and of securing the greatest measure of
co-operation between the Government, in its capacity as employer and the general
body of its employees in matters of common concern, and with the object further
of increasing the efficiency of the public service. The JCM at different levels
have been discussing issues brought before it for consideration and either
reaching amicable settlement or referring the matter to the Board of Arbitration
in relation to pay and allowances, weekly hours of work and leave, wherever no
amicable settlement could be reached in relation to these items."
The
forum of Departmental Councils must be immediately revived in all Departments
and made effective as an instrument to settle the demands of the employees. The
periodicity in which the meeting of the National Council is to be held must be
adhered. The Department of Personnel, which is the nodal department for
ensuring the functioning of the negotiating machinery must monitor the
functioning of the Departmental Councils of various Ministries and Departments
and a report placed in the National Council. The Cabinet Secretary, who is the
Chairman of the National Council, is required to ensure that the Council
meetings are convened once in four months and the issues raised therein settled
in a reasonable time frame.
Since
the grant of recognition to Service Association is a pre requisite for the
effective functioning of the negotiating machinery, the Ministries must be asked
to process the application and take decision in the matter within a fixed time
frame as the recognition rules have come into existence in 1993 that is about a
decade back.
Item No. 6. Remove the ban on recruitment and creation of
posts
In
1993, the Government of India introduced a total and blanket ban on creation of
posts. This was with a view to reduce the manpower in the Governmental
establishments, for on implementation of the neo liberal economic policies, the
Government will be required to close down some of its activities and some others
to be shifted to the private domain. In 2001, the GOI issued an
executive instruction modifying the complete ban on recruitment that was in
vogue whereby various departments, if they so desire, resort to recruit
personnel to fill up the existing vacancies, provided they abolish
2/3rd of such vacancies. In other words, the concerned heads of
Departments will be permitted to fill up 1/3rd of the vacancies
provided they abolish the 2/3rd vacancies permanently.
Since
it was impossible to carry on the functions assigned to the Departments with
large number of vacant posts, they had to implement the above cited directive of
the Department of personnel, which was meant to arbitrarily reduce the manpower
especially in Group C and D segments. Though the directive was to be applied
uniformly to all cadres where direct entry is one of the mode of recruitment,
not a single Group A. post was abolished as most of the departments offered to
do away with Group C and D posts even in the place of require Gr.A posts.
Since direct recruitment is seldom resorted to in Group B cadres, the brunt of
the burden of the above cited instruction had to be borne b y the Group C and
D cadres in each department. The said directive remained operative for nearly a
decade i.e. upto 2010. Such abnormal and arbitrary abolition of posts affected
very adversely the functioning of many departments consequent upon which the
public at large suffered immeasurably, besides accentuating the unemployment
situation to alarming proportion. To cope up with the genuine complaints of
the public, most of the heads of Departments had to resort to either outsourcing
of the functions or engaging contract workers. The Govt. encouraged this
endeavour by providing unlimited funds. In the circumstances, it is imperative
that the sanctioned Strength as on 1.01.2001 is restored and the consequent
vacancies filled up by a special drive for recruitment.
The
Government has a time tested and scientific system of assessing the workload and
measuring the manpower requirement. This seems to have been presently abandoned
and the vacancies barring in a few cases are not being filled up. Even though
there had been phenomenal increase in the workload in each department no new
posts are created to cope up with the situation. The 6th CPC dealing
with the subject has recommended that such ban on creation of posts for a long
period is not desirable and the Departments should be empowered to create the
need based posts for its effective functioning. The commensurate posts that are
needed to cope up with the increasing workload must be sanctioned and
recruitment of personnel resorted to so that the assigned functions of each
department could be carried out effectively and
efficiently.
Item No. 7. Downsizing, outsourcing, contractorisation etc.
To overcome the difficulties emanated from the total
ban on recruitment and creation of posts and more specifically impacted by the
2001 executive fiat of the Govt. of India in the matter, many departments had to
resort to outsourcing of its functions. Some were virtually closed down and a
few others were privatised or contractorised. The large scale outsourcing and
contractorisation of functions had a telling effect on the efficacy of the
Government departments. The delivery system was adversely affected and the
public at large suffered due to the inordinate delay it caused in getting the
requisite service.. The financial outlay for outsourcing of functions of each
department increased enormously over the years. The quality of work suffered.
In order to ensure that the people do get a better and efficient service from
the Government departments and to raise the image of the Government employees
in the eyes of the common people, it is necessary that the present scheme of
outsourcing and contractorisation of essential functions of the Government must
be abandoned.The practice of outsourcing and contractorisation is nothing but a
cruel exploitation of the alarming situation of unemployment. The system of
outsourcing of the functions seeks to informalise the workforce. The
contract/casual workers get not even one third of the salary of the regular
work force. They have no social security benefits like pension, provident fund
gratuity etc. The CG employees fought against the temporary service rules which
was in vogue in sixties and ensured that the recruitment to Government service
is permanent and the civil servants are not allowed to be fired at the whim and
fancy of their bosses. The outsourcing and contractorisation has paved way for
large scale entry of casual workers and has resulted in the reversal of what all
achieved in this direction through struggles in the past two decades.
Item No. 8. Stop price rise and strengthen PDS.
The
abnormal and phenomenal increase in the prices of essential commodities is an
acknowledged fact. The pursuance of the new economic policies and consequent
withdrawal of the universal public distribution system had been per se the
reason for such unbearable inflation. The universal PDS which was evolved to
protect the food security of common people was an effective instrument not only
to arrest inflation but also to ensure that no Indian dies of hunger.
Government employees even at the lowest wage structure i.e. the Group D and C
employees are presently precluded from the PDS as their meagre wages itself is
considered to be above the benchmark of "Below Poverty Line". They are to
depend upon the open market for even essential food items, which with their
meagre income they are unable to access. It is, therefore, necessary that the
universal PDS as was in vogue must be brought back as the market forces have
failed to arrest inflation and price rise of essential food items.
Item No. 9.Introduction of PLB and
removal of ceiling limit.
Barring the Railways, Defence production units and Postal Department,
Bonus is paid to the Central Government employees on adhoc basis. The 30 days
adhoc bonus is the maximum that is provided to them. The 4thand
5th Central Pay Commissions had recommended the introduction of
productivity linked bonus scheme to all Departments as is presently the case in
the three Departments mentioned above. Even the scheme of PLB is not uniform in
as much as the Postal Department introduced a ceiling on the entitled number of
days of bonus whereas no such ceiling exist either in the Railways or in the
Defence Production organisations. The Government is yet to implement these
recommendations even though several rounds of discussions on the subject were
held. There is no reason whatsoever, as to why this recommendation could not be
implemented. There had been no rise in the adhoc bonus for past a decade even
though there had been considerable amount of increase in the case of PLB over
the years. The Department of Personnel and Expenditure may be advised to
finalise the PLB scheme without further delay for those who are in receipt of
adhoc bonus.
Even
though Bonus Act is said to have no application or relevance to the Productivity
linked Bonus or adhoc bonus, the provisions of the said Act is employed to deny
the entitled bonus to the Government employees on the basis of their
emoluments. The bonus entitlement in both the cases is restricted to the
computation based on the notional emoluments of Rs. 3500, while the Postal
Department went one step ahead and declared that in the case of GDS, it would
continue to be Rs. 2500.The injustice meted out to the GDS in the matter by the
Postal Department is highly deplorable. Presently even a casual worker is
entitled to get a monthly wage of more than Rs. 3500. The minimum wage as on
1.1.2006 determined by the 6th CPC in respect of Central Government
employees is Rs. 7000. By artificially linking the restriction of emoluments
stipulated by the Bonus Act, the employees are denied their legitimate
entitlement of Bonus. The Bonus entitlement must be computed on the basis of
the actual emoluments of an employee.
Item No. 10. Revising OTA and Night Duty allowance
rates:
Overtime allowance is seldom given to the Government employees. In
case of emergency and in the contingency in which the work cannot be postponed,
like that happens in the RMS division of Postal Department, in the Atomic Energy
Commission offices or when the Parliament is in session in other administrative
offices, employees are asked to do work beyond the stipulated working hours.
The Night duty allowance is provided to the employees who are asked to work in
the night shifts with certain stipulated conditions. The 4th CPC
recommended that since there had been considerable misuse of the provisions
relating to the grant of OTA, the Government should find alternative methods to
compensate the employees who are asked to work on over time and pending such a
scheme being evolved recommended not to revise the rates. However, the Govt.did
not bring in any new scheme but issued the directive that the OTA and Night duty
allowance will be paid to the employees who are called upon to do overtime or
night duty on the basis of the 4th CPC pay structure. This directive
is still in vogue. On quite a number of occasions, the Staff Side pointed out
the irrationality of the directive of the Government in as much as a person
engaged for managing the excess work from outside gets better emoluments than
the over time allowance granted to the regular employees. The Government
refused to reach an agreement in the National Council on this issue. When the
Staff side pressed, the Government came forward to record disagreement and
refered the matter to the Board of Arbitration under the JCM. Scheme. The
Board of Arbitration having found the unreasonable position taken by the
Government gave out the award in favour of the staff and directed the Government
to revise the order whereby the allowance will be linked to the actual pay of
the Government employees. The Govt. did not accept this award and has
approached the Parliament for the rejection of the same. The matter has not yet
been placed in the form of a resolution in the Parliament. Despite the fact
that the employees had been abiding by the directive of their superiors to be on
overtime/night duty, and despite having won the case before the Board of
Arbitration they continue to be compensated on the basis of the Notional pay as
in 1986. There could not have been a much bigger injustice meted out to the
employees. The Government must accept the award of the Board and issue
instructions linking the allowance to the actual pay of the employee.
Item No.11. Arbitration Awards.
There
are about 17 awards of the Board of Arbitration given in favour of the
employees. On the plea that the implementation of these awards would result in
heavy financial outflow, the Govt. has moved resolutions in the Parliament for
the rejection of these awards. The fact is that the financial burden on
account of acceptance of these awards is meagre. The figures quoted by the
official side included the arrears that have become due to the delay in taking
decisions. The financial implication is normally computed as a total outlay for
a period of a year. The official side has in fact only tried to mislead the
Parliament in order to obtain a rejection of the award. A few years back, the
staff side agreed to alter the date of implementation of these awards in order
to reduce the financial implication. The official side discussed the issue on
several occasions but did not conclude with the result that these awards are
still pending acceptance of the Government. It is rather unethical and
untenable that the Government has chosen to invoke the sovereign authority of
the Parliament to deny the legitimate dues of its own employees. Prior to 1998,
the Government has not chosen to approach the Parliament once the award is given
in favour of the employees and implemented every one of them except in a very
few cases. The Government must accept these awards and implement the same for
such a direction will bring in confidence in the efficacy of the negotiating
forum and a sense of reasonableness in the decision making
process.
Item No. 12. Right to strike
Article 309 of the Constitution makes it incumbent upon the
Government of India and the Provincial Governments to make enactments to
regulate the service conditions of the civil servants. However, till date no
such enactment has either been moved or passed by the Parliament.. The
transitory provisions empowering the President of India to make rules till such
time the enactment is made has been employed to regulate the service conditions
of the Government employees. Once recruited as an employee, the ILO's
conventions provide all trade union rights. India is a signatory to those
conventions. Despite all these legal and moral obligations on the part of the
Government, the Government employees continue to be denied the right to
collective bargaining. No negotiation is worth the meaning, if the employees
have no right to withdraw their labour in case of a non-satisfactory agreement
on their demands. It is this legal lacuna which was employed by the Supreme
Court to justify the arbitrary dismissal of lakhs of employees by the Tamilnadu
State Government when they resorted to strike action. In the judgment delivered
by the Supreme Court, it was observed that the Government employees do not have
any legal, fundamental or moral right to resort to strike action. The entire
section of the Indian Working Class enjoys the right to strike and an effective
collective bargaining system except the Government employees. The denial of the
right to strike to Government employees was employed by the British Colonial
Rulers as part of the scheme to subjugate the Indian people and to shut out any
probable dissenting views within the Governmental machinery. To continue with
the same concept is to infer that the Sovereign Republic of India want to
follow the archaic rules and regulations conceived by colonial rulers perhaps
with the same intent. We therefore urge that necessary legislation affording
the right to strike to Government employees may be made in the Parliament.
Item No. 13 :Career progression: Grant five promotion in the service
career.
For
the efficient functioning of an institution, the primary pre-requisite is to
have a contended workforce. It is not only the emoluments, perks and privileges
that motivate an employee to give his best. They are no doubt important. But
what is more important is to provide them a systematic career progression. The
present system of career progression available in the All India Services and the
organised group A Civil services attracts large number of young, talented and
educated persons to compete in the All India Civil Service Examination. No
different was the career progression scheme available in the subordinate
services in the past. Persons who were recruited to subordinate services were
able to climb to Managerial positions over a period of time. The situation
underwent vast changes in the last two decades. In most of the Departments,
stagnation has come to stay. It takes decades to be promoted to the next higher
grade in the hierarchy. It was the recognition of the lack of promotional
avenue in the subordinate services that made the 5th CPC to recommend
a time bound two career progression scheme. However, this has not gone to
address the inherent problem of de-motivation that has crept in due to the high
level of stagnation. In most of the Departments, the exercise of cadre review
which was considered important was not carried out. Any attempt in this regard
was restricted to Group A services. The discontent amongst the employees in the
matter is of high magnitude today. It is, therefore, necessary that every
Department is asked to undertake to bring about a cadre composition and
recruitment pattern in such a manner that an employee once recruited is to have
five hierarchical promotions in his career as is presently the position
in the All India Services and in the organised Group A services.
Item No.14: Scrap the New Pension Scheme
The
defined benefit scheme of pension was introduced replacing the then existing
contributory system decades back. . The Government decided to reconvert the
same into a contributory scheme on the specious plea that the outflow on pension
had been increasing year by year and is likely to cross the wage bill. By making
it contributory, the Government expenditure on this score is not likely to get
reduced for the next four decades because of the reason that as per the
announced scheme, the Government is to contribute the same amount to the fund as
the employees make. Coupled with this stipulation the Government is also duty
bound to make payment for the existing pensioners and for all Central Government
employees who were in service prior to 1.1.2004. The contribution collected
from the employees who are recruited after 1.1.2004 is to be managed by a mutual
fund operator for investment in the stock market. It is the vagaries of the
stock market which will then determine the quantum of pension or in other words
annuity, which would not be cost indexed. Before the introduction of the new
scheme and the PFRDA bill, the Government had set up a committee under the
chairmanship of Shri Bhattacharya, the then Chief Secretary of the State of
Karnataka. The bill was unfortunately drafted and presented to the Parliament
disregarding even the recommendation of the said committee to the effect that
the Govt. should consider introducing a hybrid system by which the employees
will have either a defined benefit pension or opt for a higher return through
stock exchange investments. Despite the non-passage of the bill and the
consequent absence of a valid law to support the Pension Regulatory authority,
the Govt. converted the existing pension scheme into a contributory one through
executive fiat and invested a percentage of the fund so generated from the
employees' contribution in the Stock market. India is a young country and the
expenditure on statutory pension has remained over a long period not more than
5% of GDP which the country/Government can afford to spend. The withdrawal of
PFRDA bill is required for the following solid reasons:
(a)
The new pension scheme is going to make social security in old age
uncertain and dependent on market forces.
(b)
The scheme has been compulsorily imposed on a section of employees
and hence it is discriminatory.
(c)
Such scheme had been a failure in many countries including Chile, UK
and even USA. In USA entire pension wealth has been wiped out leaving
pensioners with no pension. In Argentina the contributory scheme which was
introduced at the instance of IMF was replaced with the defined benefit pension
scheme.
(d)
The PFRDA Bill has provisions empowering the Govt. and the Authority
to cover employees now left out and to amend the existing entitlements of
pension benefits.
(e)
In majority of the countries, "pay as you go" is the system of
pension.
(f)
The contributory scheme does not give any guarantee for a minimum
pension of 50% of the pay drawn at the time of retirement of the employee. Nor
does it provide for the protection of his family members in the form of family
pension in the event of death
The
Supreme Court had declared pension as one of the fundamental rights. The
government should therefore retrace from its avowed position, which is
detrimental to the interest of the employees and ensure that the employees
recruited after 1.1.2004 is covered by the existing statutory defined benefit
scheme and withdraw the PFRDA bill from the Parliament.
The
recent decision of the Cabinet to allow FDI in pension fund operations has made
the real intent of the PFRDA bill unambiguously clear. The FDI will facilitate
the mutual fund operators to invest the funds outside India thereby making
Indian Savings available for development of a foreign country. It is now clear
that the decision behind the contributory pension scheme was the pressure
imposed by imperialist powers and more specifically IMF. It has, therefore, to
be opposed at all cost and with vehemence. The Govt. must not be allowed to go
ahead with its intention of induction of FDI in pension fund companies. The one
day strike on 12th December, 2012 must be seen as a beginning of the
sustained and incessant struggles in the days to come.
Item No. 15.Vacate All Trade Union
victimisation
The Central
Government employees are alarmed and distressed over the spree of vindictive
actions pursued by various Accountant Generals against the employees of the I A
& AD Department. More than 12000 employees have been proceeded against
under Rule 14 or 16 of the CCS (CCA) rules. The resort to such vindictive action
has been taken by the Administration of the Comptroller and Auditor General of
India for the simple reason that the employees together decided to be on mass
casual leave demanding the vacation of victimization of the Union functionaries
in Kerala, Rajkot, Gwalior, Kolkata, Nagpur, Allahabad etc. The very fact that
large number of employees participated in the Mass Casual leave programme is
indicative of the fact of the growing discontent against the highhandedness of
the Administration.
The
authorities in the IA & AD have not been permitting the genuine trade union
activities for the last several years. No meeting of the employees is allowed if
the same is held under the auspices of the recognized Associations, whereas
permission to hold cultural shows even during office hours are granted. In the
name of discipline, dissenting voice, howsoever genuine they are, is not being
tolerated. Despite repeated pleas made by the All India Audit and Accounts
Association, the Comptroller General of India did not deem it to fit to
intervene and set right the high handed behaviour of the Accountant General
Kerala. On his promotion as Principal Accountant General, he was transferred to
Hyderabad, where, as per the report, he has continued with his intolerant
attitude towards the Association. Permission to hold the General Body meeting, a
constitutional requirement and a necessity to abide by the stipulations made by
the CCS (RSA) Rules, 1993, was denied to the recognized Association in Andhra
Pradesh. The General Secretary and other office bearers of the Association have
been proceeded against under Rule 16 for holding the General Body meeting during
lunch break.
In
the background of this unprecedented situation and the blanket ban instituted by
the authorities to hold any meeting within the office premises we appealed to
the Honourable Prime Minister to intervene in the matter and direct the
concerned to hear the grievances of the employees and settle the same in an
amicable and peaceful atmosphere. We also requested that In order to create a
conducive atmosphere for talks, the authorities may be asked to withdraw all
punitive and vindictive actions against the employees who had gone on Mass
casual leave as a means of protesting against the inordinate delay in settling
issues and to give vent to their feeling of anger. Not only no action has been
initiated by the C&AG in this direction but the vindictive attitude of the
Accountant Generals continue to persist. The Government is required to interfere
and bring about a peaceful atmosphere in this prestigious institution.
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