New Delhi: The central government employees unions, aggrieved over the delay on higher allowances under the 7th Pay Commission recommendations, may call for nationwide strike if the Committee on Allowance fails to submit its final report within this month.

The Committee on Allowances is likely to submit its report on higher allowances under the 7th Pay Commission to the Finance Ministry this week, media reported.

But there is no official confirmation in this regard.

It’s been almost nine months since the formation of the Committee on Allowances, but it is yet to submit its report.

The government in July last year had formed the ‘Committee on Allowances’, headed by Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa, for examination of the recommendations of 7th Pay Commission on allowances other than dearness allowance as the pay commission had recommended abolition of 51 allowances and subsuming 37 others out of 196 allowances.

The committee was asked to submit its report within four months, but later its tenure was extended to February 22, this year.

However, the Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa said in October last year, “We are ready to submit our report, when the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley calls up.”

Meanwhile, the National Council Staff Side has called a meeting on May 2 of the Joint Consultative Machinery (JCM) to discuss the next course of action if the Committee on Allowance further delays report.

National Joint Council of Action (NJCA) convenor Shiv Gopal Mishra said the central government employees might go on strike if the Committee on Allowances delays the report further or rejected their demands.

The National Joint Council of Action (NJCA) is an umbrella organisation of various Central Government employees unions, including Railways, post and telegraph and Income Tax.

The NJCA is leading the negotiation over 7th Pay Commission on behalf of central government employees.

“The JCM meeting is called on May 2. Whether the Lavasa Committee submits it report or not (by the end of the month), the meet would be held.

If the report on allowances is not tabled, then we will plan the next step of action. I cannot rule out the option of reviving the call for strike.

After all, how long should the employees wait?” said Shiv Gopal Mishra.

The issue of hike in minimum pay would also be discussed at the JCM meet.

“It is the centrifugal issue. All pay commission so far had kept the issue of minimum salary at the centre. We will negotiate with the government and attempt to persuade them,” he said.

Central government employees are unhappy because of the pay commission recommendation of reducing the house rent allowance (HRA) to 24%, 16% and 8% of basic pay as against the 30%, 20% and 10% of basic pay employees were drawing under the Sixth Pay Commission.

It is noted that central government employees unions also demanded for hiking minimum pay Rs 18,000 to Rs 26,000 and they asked to raising fitment factor 3.68 times from 2.57 times approved by the government based on the pay commission recommendations.

If the 2.57 fitment formula is tinkered with, then salary and pension in general for all central government employees will go up.

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New Delhi: A finance ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, today said that the Central government employees will get the higher allowances under the 7th pay commission recommendations with retrospective effect from January 1, 2016.

Responding to our reporter, the finance ministry official said the central government has to accept to implement the ‘Committee on Allowances’ recommendations without any hartals by the employees’ unions.

In the past, employees unions had to come on roads and go on strike to push for implementation of pay commission, but this time the government has to order the implementation of higher allowances soon as it is their right, he said.

Employees will get the benefits of the higher allowances with retrospective effect from January 2016, the official said, adding that the government is also working on formulating plan for paying arrears on this account.

The finance ministry will formulate roadmap for payment of arrears, he added.

The government in July last year had formed the ‘Committee on Allowances’, headed by Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa, for examination of the recommendations of 7th Pay Commission on allowances other than dearness allowance as the pay commission had recommended abolition of 51 allowances and subsuming 37 others out of 196 allowances.

The committee was initially given four months time to submit the report to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Later, the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley extended the deadline for report submission to February 22, 2017.

The ‘Committee on Allowances is yet to submit its report. The committee is now in the process of finalising its report and the government would take a decision after the report is submitted. It may be taken more time to finalise its report.

Accordingly, the National Joint Council of Action (NJCA), which is a centralised union of several central government employees unions, has told cabinet secretary that the higher allowances must be given as arrears from January 2016.

The central government employees and pensioners got theirs arrears of basic pay and pension arising from implementation of the 7th Pay Commission recommendations in one go in August salaries and pension respectively.

The hike in basic pay and pension has been made effective from January 1, 2016 but the they are still awaiting for the higher allowances.

I have met the Cabinet Secretary on March 28 and have submitted our demands. In which the NJCA have clearly mentioned that whenever there is an implementation of 7th Pay Commission the government has to pay higher allowances effective from January 2016. If the government fails to do so then we will object it in an organised manner, Shiv Gopal Mishra, Convenor, NJCA, said.

TST

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7th Pay Commission : On Friday senior officials of Union Cabinet were expected to meet members of the panel over Higher Allowance and National Pension Scheme (NPS).

However sources indicate that the meeting did not take place.

As almost a year has passed, we try to figure out where does the story of 7th Pay Commission stand today. The panel was constituted a day after the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission recommendations.

This panel on the higher allowance, named ‘Committee on Allowance’ was also expected to make a major announcement on Friday following the submission of the report to the government. However that too didn’t happen.

As we all know, Prime Minister gave the nod for an additional 2 per cent increase in Dearness Allowance(DA) for all Central Government employees. Moreover, along with the DA, for pensioners, the Dearness Relief (DR) has been increased by 2 per cent with effect from January 1, 2017.

While reports claim that the increasing of the Dearness Allowance has benefited 48.85 lakh employees and 55.51 lakh pensioners, the central Government employees are now concerned about the Committee on Allowance’s decision.

But more importantly, although the DA has been hiked, the Committee headed by Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa is yet to submit the reports on other allowances, which were also scheduled to be increased once the 7th Pay Commission was implemented.

However, the National Joint Council of Action (NJCA) on behalf of the Central Government employees expressed their dissatisfaction over the hiked 2% DA and said it should have been increased by at least 3%.

April 1, 2017, was the rumoured date for implementing the allowance hike but now that the report has not yet been submitted, it seems the rumour is to stay as it is.

Following this, the NJCA has warned of dire consequences if the Centre fails to implement the allowance hike from April 1.

Source: India.com

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