Overtime Allowance to Central Government employees – Compensatory OFF/Leave in lieu of duty performed on Holiday and overtime basis

Overtime Allowance to Central Government employees

File No. PP-16/6/2020-PAP
Government of India
Ministry of Communications
Department of Posts
PAP Section/ (Establishment Division)

Dak Bhawan, Sansad Marg,
New Delhi-110001.
Dated: 12th November, 2020.

To
Heads of Circles.

Sub: Regarding grant of compensatory OFF/ Leave in lieu of duty performed on Holiday and overtime basis.

Sir/ Madam,

The undersigned is directed to say that this Department has been receiving queries seeking clarification regarding grant of compensatory OFF/ Leave in lieu of duty performed on Holiday and overtime basis.

The matter has been examined and it has been decided that instructions / guidelines issued by Department of Personnel & Training’s on compensatory off vide para 3 of OM No.15012/3/86-Estt. (Allowance) dated 11.08.1976 and para 6 of OM No. 15012/3/86-Estt (Allowance) dated 19.03.1991 (Copies enclosed) in this regard may be followed.

Yours faithfully,

(D.K. Tripathi) ADG (Estt.)

Overtime Allowance to Central Government employees

No. 15011/2/E.II (B)/ 76
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Expenditure

New Delhi, dated the 11th August, 1976

Office Memorandum

Subject: Overtime Allowance to Central Government employees.

The undersigned is directed to state that a need has been felt for some time past of consolidating at one place the instructions/ orders issued by this Ministry from time to time. Accordingly in supersession of all the previous orders on the subject, the grant of overtime allowance to Central Government employees will be governed by the following orders. The Ministry of Home Affairs etc. are requested that these orders may be brought to the notice of all the administrative authorities under them for information/ guidance and compliance.

2. Eligibility of Overtime Allowance

All non-gazetted Central Government servants and also gazetted Government servants who fall in the excepted category mentioned at para 5(a) of these orders, paid from Civil Estimates (including those working in the Union Territories Administration) of the following categories, Vis. (i) office staff and (ii) those staffs whose prescribed hours and nature of work are comparable to those of “Office staff” shall in future, be governed by these orders.

Administrative Ministries will be competent to decide, in consultation with their Internal Financial Advisers, as to which staff falls in category (ii) above. The Comptroller & Auditor General of India will exercise that power in respect of the staff of the Indian Audit and Accounts Department.

3. Condition for the grant Overtime Allowance

(a) The work in all offices should be so organized as ordinarily to be capable of being done during the normal office hours. The question of overtime work to be done should are only in special circumstances and where working beyond the prescribed office hours is a regular feature the offices and the officers should so stagger the working hours that the staff working in the office or attaché to officers attend to such work by rotation.

(b) Where, in special circumstances, it becomes necessary to perform overtime work, the competent authority may authorize such overtime work, after satisfying himself that the work is of such an urgent nature that it cannot be postponed in the public interest till the next working day and the competent authority shall, as far as possible, specify beforehand the time upto which a Government servant may be required to perform overtime work. In this regard following further instructions may be strictly observed:-

Implementation of Government decision on 7th CPC recommendations on Night Duty Allowance (NDA)

(i) If an employee is required to attend office earlier than the prescribed hours of work, he should normally be allowed to leave office correspondingly early. Where, however, it is not feasible to allow him to leave office early, he may be paid overtime allowance after deducting the normal one hour of free work.. If such an employee is also required to work beyond office hours on that day overtime allowance may be allowed for the total period of overtime work performed before and after the prescribed hours of work after deducting from the total normal one hour of free work..

(ii) The staff who are required to perform overtime duty for the full prescribed hours of work on Sundays (or other weekly or fortnightly off-day or Second Saturdays) or on other holidays/ public holidays should, as a rule, be granted compensatory leave in lieu. Employees who are required to work on such days beyond full day may be allowed a day’s compensatory leave in lieu of the full day’s work and paid overtime allowance for the excess time put by them minus one hour free duty. In cases where an employee is required to work for half a day or less, e.g. from the time the office opens till lunch time, two such half days should be taken a equivalent to one full day for the purpose of grant of compensatory leave. Where necessary half a day’s compensatory leave may be given.

Cash compensation in the form of overtime allowance for duty on Sundays/ weekly or Fortnightly off-days/ Second Saturdays/ public holiday may be granted only in very exceptional circumstances where an officer not below the rank of Joint Secretary in the Secretariat Offices or the Head of the Department in the case of Attached, Subordinate or other offices is satisfied and certifies that it is not possible to grant compensatory leave.

Note 1:- Whenever duty is performed beyond a full day (beyond full prescribed hours of work), overtime allowance for such duty is to be granted only after deducting one hour free duty. If an employee comes to office late, with or without previous permission, on any day and is required to work beyond office hours on that day, the following deductions should be made in calculating overtime allowance:-

(a) the normal one hour of free work; and

(b) the time by which he comes late.

Note 2:- Normally compensatory leave under these orders should be granted within one month of its becoming due. This condition may be relaxed in exceptional circumstances to be decided upon by an officer of the rank of Joint Secretary in the case of Secretariat staff and Head of the Department in the case of staff of attached, subordinate or other offices, who will satisfy himself and certify that the grant of compensatory leave to all the staff within a month would cause serious dislocation of current work.. There will be no limit upto which compensatory leave may be allowed to accumulate but not more than two days compensatory leave may be allowed to be availed of at a time.

(iii) The total overtime allowance payable to a Government se5vant in terms of these orders shall not exceed one-third of their monthly emolument payable during the month as defined in rule 4(b) below. While the ceiling referred to above will normally apply to personal staff also, in special cases, such staff may be paid overtime allowance in excess of the ceiling if the officers to whom they are attached certify that they have satisfied themselves that the overtime work performed by their personal staff necessitating the payment of overtime allowance in excess of the ceiling was necessary in the public interest. But in any case it should not exceed 50% of their emoluments as defined in these orders.

Note:- Payment of overtime allowance upto the ceiling of 50% of emoluments” referred to above will not be applicable to the personal staff posted by informal arrangements. The concession will be limited to those personal staff posted/ sanctioned by the Department of Personnel & Administrative Reforms or authorized by the competent authority.

In calculating overtime allowance under these orders, the actual time taken for lunch break should be deducted from the total hours for which the staff concerned is eligible for the allowance.

Overtime allowance under these orders may not be paid to Government servants required to perform duty at the site of an exhibition/ fair, in addition to his normal duty.

All the regular class IV staff, including Waiters, Cooks, Sweepers, Farashes and Chowkidars, whose hours of work have been prescribed by the competent authority and who are at present eligible to overtime allowance may be paid overtime allowance as the same rate admissible to other class IV staff working in offices except those who are paid overtime allowance under any statutory rules in force.

DEFINITIONS

For the purpose of these orders, unless the context otherwise requires:-

(a) A competent authority means:-

In the case of Secretariat and attached offices an officer not below the rank of an Under Secretary to the Government of India or comparable status;

In the case of an office under the supervision of a Government servant holding a non-gazetted post, a Government servant authorized by the Head of the Department to exercise the powers of a competent authority:

In respect of the personal staff of Ministers and officers above the rank of Joint Secretary, their private Secretary, if the Private Secretary is a gazetted officer, will be the competent authority under these orders (In respect of the personal staff of officers of the rank of Joint Secretary, the Joint Secretary concerned or an officer of his rank may be regarded as the competent authority).

(b) Emoluments mean pay as defined in clause (c) below and all allowances including Winter Allowance & Hill compensatory allowance be excluding house rent allowance, conveyance allowance, horse allowance, traveling / daily allowance, permanent traveling allowance and clothing/ uniform allowance. In the case of re-employed pensioners, emoluments shall also include pension to the extent indicated vide para 6 below:-

Note 1:- The list of excluded allowances above is not exhaustive. The other allowance like children educational allowance, Messing allowance etc., which are not admissible to all Government Servants working at a place may be regarded as excluded category of allowances. The Project allowance to the extent it does not include an element of excluded an element of excluded category can be included in the emoluments for the purpose of Overtime allowance.

Note 2:- In the case of those employees who have opted to remain on pre-revised scales of pay under the Central Civil Services (Revised Pay) Rules, 1973 the term emoluments will also include interim relief admissible to them.

(c) Head of a Department means the authority declared as such under Supplementary Rule 2(10);

(d) Overtime work means work done in excess of one hour over the prescribed hours of work on any working day and includes work done on any Sunday or any other holiday;

(e) Pay means pay as defined in Fundamental Rules 9(21) (a).

Note:– As the overtime allowance payable in terms of these orders is based on emoluments which term includes dearness allowance, it will have to be recalculated, if any change- upwards or downwards- in emoluments is given effect from a retrospective date. As a result of recalculation of Overtime Allowances, arrears are to be paid or, as the case may be , recoveries of over payments are to effected.

(f) Prescribed hours of work means hours of work prescribed in any office in respect of employees working in this office.

5. CATEGORIES OF GOVERNMENT SERVANTS TO WHOM THESE ORDERS WHALL NOT APPLY EVEN THOUGH THEY MAY BE OF THE NATURE OF OFFICE STAFF OR STAFFS WHOSE PRESCRIBED HOURS AND NATURE OF WORK ARE COMPARABLE TO THOSE OF ‘OFFICE STAFF’

These orders shall not apply to:-

(a) Government servants holding gazetted posts except that:-

The concessions of overtime allowance may be extended to officers holding the post of Private Secretaries, Additional Private Secretaries , Assistant Private Secretaries or First Personal Assistants to Ministers Deputy Ministers even though these posts are gazetted posts, in those cases in which:-

(i) Just before their appointment to such posts, they had held non-gazetted posts;

(ii) They have not been allowed full pay of the said gazetted posts but their pay has been restricted under FR 35 to below the minimum of the pay of those posts; and

(iii) their pay, as defined in para 4 (e) above does not exceed Rs. 750/-:

(iv) The grant of overtime allowance in above cases will also be subject to those orders, including ceiling limits etc.

Note: The overtime allowance will also be admissible to officers of the Central Secretariat Stenographers Service, not approved for appointment to Grade I of the service, but appointed as first personal Assistants to Ministers, if the total pay plus the special pay admissible falls below the minimum of the Grade I of the Central Secretariat Stenographers Service.

(b) Government servants holding non-gazetted posts whose pay, as defined under these orders exceeds Rs. 750/- p.m..

( c) Government servants who hold supervisory posts not excluded b clauses (a) and (b) above, unless they fulfill the following conditions:-

(i) They are in direct and continuous contact with staffs supervise:

(ii) They work the same hours as the staff under them; and

(iii) They are themselves subject to the kind of supervision which would enable them ordinarily to obtain prior approval for overtime.

(d) Field staff and Inspection staff.

(e) Government servants who are governed by the Factories Act, 1948, or the Minimum Wages (Central) Rules, 1950, and are paid overtime allowances in accordance with the provisions of Section 59 of the Factories Act, 1948 or Rule 25 of the Minimum Wages (Central) Rules, 1950 as the case may be:

(f) Staff Car Drivers.

(g) Resident (night duty) clerks and Peons attached to them in the Secretariat and certain other offices.

(h) Persons not in whole-time employment.

(i) Personal paid out of contingencies.

(j) Persons paid otherwise than on a monthly basis.

(k) Persons employed on contract except when the contract provides otherwise; and

(l) Such of the Government servants employed in the Government of India Presses, the Government Controlled Ports, the Mercantile Marine Department, the Customs (including Land Customs) Department, the Central Excise Department and the Overseas Communication Service, as are already in receipt of overtime allowance under other schemes.

(a) Re-employed pensioners

The drawal of overtime allowance in the case o re-employed pensioners shall be regulated as indicated below:-

(i) in the case of officers whose pay plus pension exceeds the sanctioned maximum pay of the post, overtime allowances shall be calculated on that maximum plus the includible allowance referred to in paragraph 4(b) above as may be admissible to them;

(ii) in the cases of officers whose pay on re-employment in civil posts is fixed without taking into account the entire pension or part thereof the amount of pension so ignored shall be ignored for calculating emoluments under para 4(b)

(iii) in other cases, the overtime allowance shall be calculated on pay plus pension plus the includible allowances referred to in paragraph 4(b) above as may be admissible to them.

(b) Persons in receipt of emoluments from foreign Governments:

Persons in receipt of any emoluments of the nature of pay, leave salary or pension from foreign Governments (eg. Burma Ceylon, Pakistan, etc.) in addition to pay from the Government of India shall subject to the total emoluments not exceeding the limits prescribed for eligibility for overtime allowance, draw the allowances on the basis of their pay plus the includible allowances referred to in paragraph 4(b) above as may be admissible to them from the Government of India alone.

Note:– For the purpose of sub-paragraphs (a) and (b):-

(i) “Pension” means gross pension including temporary increase in pension, death-cum retirement gratuity and other retirement.

(ii) The amount of pension shall be the amount originally sanctioned (i.e. before commutation, in any) less the amount of pension, if any, held in abeyance as a condition of re-employment

(c) Workshop staffs:

(1) Where the payment of overtime allowance is regulated under the Factories Act or other statutory enactment, it will continue to be so regulated.

(2) In the case of the overtime allowance payable otherwise than according to the statutory provisions, the Third Pay Commission have made the following recommendations:-

(i) Where the system of overtime work continues, the period of overtime should be made admissible only if the work put in during a working week of 6 days exceeds 48 hours; in reckoning these 48 hours the period allowed for total breaks should be included;

(ii) In Government Presses, where the prescribed weekly hours are less than 48, the work done between the prescribed hours and the weekly norm of 48 hours is compensated in the form of overtime allowance at double the time rate. Compensation for such work should be only at the time rate in future.

It has been decided that these recommendations will not apply to existing employees working in the industrial establishment of the Government. They may continue to be governed by existing rules. Attempts should, however, be made to apply the recommendation to those who join service on or after 3.12.1974 and to employees of new industrial units. For this purpose, it may be necessary to to amend standing orders, given notice of change etc. The administrative Ministries are requested to try the system as recommended by the Pay Commission wherever they find it feasible and in any case wherever a new industrial units are established. In such cases the rates of overtime allowance which may by prescribed by rules or orders should also be in accordance with the Pay Commissions’ recommendations.

7CPC / Implementation of the recommendations of 7th CPC on Over Time Allowance (OTA) preparation a list of those staff coming under the category of Operational Staff

6. Non-industrial staffs in workshops – Overtime Allowance

In the case of non-industrial staffs in workshops whose hours of work and holidays are the same as those of industrial staffs, the existing rates of overtime allowance may continue, if such non-industrial staffs are already covered by a scheme of overtime allowance.

If such non-industrial staffs are not at present covered by any scheme of overtime allowance, they may be allowed overtime allowance but only at the time rate for work in excess of the prescribed hours but not in excess of 48 hours in a week or 9 hours on any day. For work in excess of 9 hours on any day or 48 hours in a week, the non-industrial staff in workshops may be given overtime allowance at the same rates as is admissible to the industrial staffs provided the Head of the establishment certifies that:-

(a) the non-industrial staffs have the same hours of work and holidays as the industrial staffs; and

(b) the nature of duties of the non-industrial staffs in such that their presence throughout is necessary for the efficient working of the industrial staffs.

Where the above two conditions are not fulfilled, the rate of overtime allowance for the non industrial staffs for work in excess of 9 hours a day or 48 hours a week will be the time rate.

(III) If the hours of work and holidays of the non-industrial staffs are not the same as for industrial staffs the rate of over time allowance for the non-industrial staffs shall be the time rate for overtime work done in excess of one hour over the prescribed hours of work, unless there already exists any scheme for payment of overtime allowance to such employees which is more liberal, in which case the existing scheme will continue in force.

Note 1:- For this purpose, “time rate” shall mean the single hourly rate of over time allowance admissible in singular circumstances to the corresponding industrial staffs, in the same workshop/ establishment.

Note 2:- “Industrial staffs” in the above clause refers to “workers” as defined in Section 2(1) of the Factories Act. 1948 and non-industrial staffs refer to the staff other than ‘workers’

Note 3:- The term “Workshop for this purpose shall mean a factory registered as such under factories act, 1948.

Note 4:– Where under the relevant enactments of the State Legislatures, the term “worker” includes also the non-industrial staff in the industrial establishments, payment of overtime allowance will be regulated according to the provisions contained in these enactments.”

7. RATES OF OVERTIME ALLOWANCE

Where a Government servant to who this order applies is required to perform overtime work, he shall be entitled to overtime allowance in respect of the overtime work done by him in accordance with the following rates:-

The rates of overtime allowance and the basis of reckoning them will, for the present, be as under:-

8. Where overtime allowance is payable to a Government servant for the overtime work performed by him, he shall not be entitled to receive any other remuneration (whether in the form of conveyance charge or compensatory leave or other-wile), in respect of such overtime work.

Provided that where a Government servant has been recalled from his residence to perform overtime work, the competent authority may allow conveyance charges to such a Government servant in addition to the overtime allowance admissible to him.

EXPLANATION 1: The first one hour of overtime work on a working day shall be free only where a Government servant works in continuation of the prescribed hours of work. Where a Government servant is recalled from his residence to perform overtime work, overtime allowance may be paid for the entire period of overtime work including the first one hour.

EXPLANATION 2: The overtime work in excess of one hour upto half an hour and thereafter every period upto half an hour be reckoned as half hour e.g. a person working for 2 hours and 10 minutes in excess of one hour beyond the prescribed hours of work will get overtime allowance for 2-1/2 hours.

EXPLANATION 3: The overtime allowance payable to Government servant shall be calculated to the nearest multiple of five paise, the fraction of three paise and more being rounded off to the next higher multiple of five paise and fractions below three paise being ignored.

EXPLANATION 4: If, for special reasons (such as the demise of a dignitary a working day is declared as a holiday before the time prescribed for the opening of the office, it shall be treated just like a Sunday or other holiday for the purpose of the payment of Overtime allowance on a day, on which the office is closed for special reasons after the prescribed opening time but before the prescribed closing time, shall be treated as a holiday only from the time the orders for closing the office reach the office.

EXPLANATION 5: The overtime allowance payable under these orders shall be classified as “honorarium” under F.R. 9(9) and shall not be treated as ‘pay’ as defined in F.R. 9 (21) or for the purposes of the supplementary Rules.

EXPLANATION 6: Government servants will also the eligible for overtime allowance for performing overtime work while on tour, subject to observance of the conditions prescribed under these orders, namely limit of 113rd /50°/o applicable to total overtime earnings, deduction   of one hours free work, maintenance of overtime register, grant of compensatory off, etc., and also subject to strict compliance with the conditions indicated below:-

• Employees who are not at present entitled to overtime allowance at their head quarters under the existing rules or schemes, shall not be entitled to overtime allowance on tour
• Subject to (i) above, on employee would be entitled to overtime allowance on tour, provided overtime work in ordered on the spot (a) by his superior official in the tour party; or (b) where an employee on tour is attache to a local office at his tour station by the competent authority in such local office at the tour station.

Note:– Where the superior official, who orders his subordinate official on tour to perform overtime work is a non-gazetted officer, or is not the competent authority to order overtime work at the head-quarters under the existing rules, he shall, on return to headquarters, submit a report to his controlling gazetted officer and / or to the competent authority, as the case may be, explaining the circumstances necessitating the detailing of staff on overtime duty, and seeking his approval.

Subject to (i) above, an employee on temporary transfer not exceeding 90 days would also be entitled to overtime allowance provided the overtime work has been ordered by his superior official on the spot.

For purposes of calculation of overtime, the time spent in travel shall be excluded .In other words, overtime shall be restricted to the period between the time when a halt on tour begins and the time when such halt ends.

Overtime allowance regulated under any statutory rules will continue to be governed by such rules only.

9. CERTIFICATE: A certificate to be signed by the drawing officer in Form Ishall be attached to the bill in which overtime allowance is drawn in respect of every Government servant to whom the overtime allowance is payable.

10. REGISTER:

1. A register of overtime wok shall be maintained in Form II in each office in which entries shall be made as and when overtime wok authorized by the competent authority is performed by th4 Government servant
2.  This register shall be examined by superior officers and shall be liable to examination by Audit at the time of inspection or audit and any instance of undue grant of overtime allowance shall be brought to the notice of the higher The superior officer shall particularly scrutinize cases where the same employee has been paid overtime allowance for more than 10 days in a month.

Note: The administrative Ministries / Departments concerned will take a decision as to who should be regarded as “Superior Officer” for the purpose of these orders.

11. If, in respect of any of the categories of staff excluded from the purview of these orders, these is no scheme of overtime allowance already in force and it is considered necessary to have such a scheme, a suitable scheme may be evolved in consultation with the Ministry of Finance, provided (a) the staff in question has prescribed hours of work; (b) the nature of work performed by the staff lends itself to a scheme of overtime allowance; (c) the staff is subject to the kind of supervision which would enable it ordinarily to obtain prior approval for working overtime and (d) the scheme is in conformity with the principles laid down in this Office Memorandum.

12. If any doubt arises relating to the interpretation of these orde4s it may be referred to the Ministry of Finance.

13. These orders shall take effect from the date of issue.

14. In so far as the persons working in the Indian Audit and Accounts Department are concerned, these orde5rs issue after consultation with the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

15. Hindi version of this M. will follow.

Sd/
(R.L. Bahl)
Under Secretary to the Govt. of India