7th CPC News : First CPC to Third CPC Pay Scales

Now all the central government employees federations are demanding the govt. to set up seventh pay commission soon. So far six pay Commissions have been set up till date from 1946 by Government of India to review and recommend wage structure for all the central government employees including postal, railway, defence civilian employees and armed forces. All the matters pertaining to the government servants like Pay and Allowances ,promotion policy, retirement benefits, service condition also been thoroughly reviewed by these Pay commissions after every ten years and they submit recommendations to the government for the approval.

At the advent of First Pay Commission, there was 1934 th year pay Scales were remained in effect. The pay scales prescribed by first pay commission replaced the 1934 pay Scales.

The first pay commission was constituted in 1946 and the government appointed Srinivasa Varadacharia as Chairman of this commission. The first pay commission was based upon the idea of “living wages” to the employees, this idea was taken from the Islington Commission and the commission observed that “the test formulated by the Islington Commission is only to be liberally interpreted to suit the conditions of the present day and to be qualified by the condition that in no case should be a man’s pay be less than a living wage.

The minimum basic pay for Class IV staff has been raised from Rs. 10/- to Rs. 30/- and for Class III from Rs. 35/- to Rs. 60/- per month.

The Commission had fixed Rs. 55/- as minimum wage (Rs. 30 plus Rs. 25 as Dearness Allowance). The recommendations were accepted and implemented in 1946.

10 years after independence, the second pay commission was set up in August 1957. Shri Jaganath Das was appointed as Chairman of this Commission. The second pay commission finished its report within two years and submitted it to the Government. The recommendations of the second pay commission had a financial impact of Rs 396 million.The second pay commission reiterated the principle on which the salaries have to be determined. It stated that the pay structure and the working conditions of the government employee should be crafted in a way so as to ensure efficient functioning of the system by recruiting persons with a minimum qualification. The Commission revised the pay scales by merging 50% of the Dearness Allowance with basic Pay and it recommended Rs. 80 as the minimum remuneration(Basic Pay Rs. 70plus DA Rs.10/-) payable to a Government employee.

Shri. Raghubir Dayal was appointed as Chairman of the third pay commission. It was set up in April 1970 and gave its report in March 1973. The commission took almost 3 years to submit the report,. The main demand of employees for a need based minimum wage as per the norms of 15th Indian Labour Conference was accepted in principle even though Commission evolved its own concept of need based wage.

The Third Pay Commission recommended Minimum remuneration of Rs. 185 per month.

By taking into the consideration  of employee’s views Government modified some of the recommendations of the Commission and minimum wage was raised from Rs. 185 per month to Rs. 196/- per month.

The pay scales of group ‘D’, ‘C’ and ‘B’ of Third Pay commission and IV pay commission given below. In the case of minimum basic pay of each scale of Pay in the two pay commissions recommended scales given below , it is to be kept in mind that 4th CPC pay was increased by 2.8 to 3.8 times from 3rd CPC.