Confederation writes to all MP’s regarding 2 Days
Strike
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 2/3rdvacancies 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 6thCPC 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.
Source :http://www.aipeup3chq.com/
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