2014
FEBRUARY 12th & 13th 48 HOURS STRIKE
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.
