Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who heads an informal group of ministers constituted to address labour issues, said the minimum wages for unskilled non-agricultural workers will be hiked to Rs 350 per day from the current Rs 246.

Seeking to dissuade labour unions from a nationwide strike on September 2, the government today announced 42 percent minimum wage hike and a two-year bonus, but the trade bodies rejected these measures as “completely inadequate” and stuck to their call.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who heads an informal group of ministers constituted to address labour issues, said the minimum wages for unskilled non-agricultural workers will be hiked to Rs 350 per day from the current Rs 246. Also, the government employees will be paid a wage bonus as per revised norms, for 2014-15 and 2015-16, a move that will entail a payout of Rs 1,920 crore. Other ‘labour-friendly’ moves included amendment in the Payment of Bonus Act and government support the cause of unions in high courts and the Supreme Court.

The government also said that it will issue advisories to states for ensuring completion of trade union registration within 45 days. The trade unions, who are demanding minimum monthly wage of Rs 18,000 per month or Rs 692 a day and base pension of Rs 3,000 a month, were not impressed by the government’s move and said they would go ahead with the day-long general strike on Friday.

The strike call is being supported by almost all major labour unions except RSS-affiliated BMS, and may impact banking and insurance services, power supplies and coal mining. “The government’s minimum wage announcement is completely inadequate. The strike stands and we demand they should enact a law to fix minimum (universal) wage,” All India Trade Union Congress General Secretary Gurudas Dasgupta said. “Finance Minister’s statement clearly shows that the government has not considered any of the demands in our 12- point charter. The unions have no other alternative but to fight for their rights,” Indian National Trade Union Congress Vice-President Ashok Singh said.

via money control

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The travel and other expenses of Union Ministers have been slashed by a whopping 54 per cent in the 2016-17, according to the Budget proposals presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today in Parliament.

The budget estimates, the amount allocated under the head of ‘Tour Expenses’ has been fixed at Rs 259 crore.

The expenditure under this head, which covers salaries, sumptuary and other allowances and travel of Cabinet Ministers, Ministers of State and ex-Prime Ministers, was pegged at Rs 269 crore for 2015-16.

However, the budgetary expenses under this head, which also covers maintenance of VVIP aircraft, was revised later to Rs 566.66 crore.

This year, the government has introduced Rs 4.35 crore under the head of ‘Hospitality and Entertainment’ under which expenditure on government hospitality and entertainment of foreign state guests and official entertainment arranged at Rashtrapati Bhawan on behalf of the Vice President and the Prime Minister.

It also includes reception on national days, investiture ceremonies and presentation of credentials.

Inputs with PTI

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New Delhi: The Seventh Pay Commission’s report is likely be submitted to the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley shortly.

Sources said that there will be no internal relief. The average increase in basic fair pay for all government employees will be in the region of 40-45%.

This is a very rough average because for senior level officers, like the Cabinet Secretary or officials at the secretary level, the payback could increase by more than 50%.

The Pay Panel may recommend a new pay scale from January 1, 2016. The existing HRA would be retained for A1 cities; while there would be a 15-20% hike for other cities.

But interestingly when we spoke to government employees they were not really happy, essentially perhaps because effectively if you take the DA out, it is not really a hefty bonanza as many thought it would be.

Also, given the price rise and inflation issues, most people are saying it is really not that sufficient. Most of these recommendations will be implemented.

But the point is, if the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has a problem with any of the observations or with the impact of the Pay Commission recommendations, he might even send this back to the Pay Commission for another round of iteration.

In that case, some amendments will be made that come back to the Finance Ministry and then it may go back to the Cabinet for approval. If that happens, it could delay the process by about 1-2 more months.

A central government employee will earn up to 40% more if the government accepts the Seventh Pay commission’s proposals, which will be submitted shortly.

This pay hike would affect the lives of over 48 lakh central government employees and 55 lakh pensioners and could trigger off similar pay hike across state governments as well.

An official of the Pay Commission, says recommendations will be made to improve productivity.

The Commission will be talked of market driven compensation at the top level, where there are expert persons required by the government. There should be open competition with the public. If they have a better candidate from outside, he should be appointed instead of simply promoting people by seniority, said the official.

TST

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NEW DELHI: A salary hike for lakhs of government employees will be delayed by two months by a panel that decides on their salaries, according to sources.

The 7th Pay Commission is not expected to lower or increase the retirement age for 54 lakh government employees, but its final report on salary hike that was to be submitted to the Centre by the end of this month, has been delayed till September 15.

According to sources, there will be no interim report of the Commission, and the new wage salary whenever accepted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s National Democratic Alliance, will be effective from January 1 next year.

The chairman of the 7th Pay Commission, Justice AK Mathur has asked for a two month extension from the government. The Commission was appointed by the previous UPA regime in February 2014, and was given 18 months to submit its report.

Nearly 90 per cent of government employees work in the armed and paramilitary forces, while others are in railways and postal department.

Sources said that the Commission was hoping that the government would take a call on One Rank One Pension, so they could modulate their own formulation in terms of pay revision.

The Commission is also expected to take a call on lateral entry and performance based pay, which has been discussed for years, but with no real solution.

During the monsoon session of Parliament earlier this month, the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework Statement tabled in Parliament said, that the salary outgo of central government employees will rise 9.56 per cent to Rs. 1,00,619 crore in the current fiscal year.

Next year, it could increase further at 15.79 per cent to nearly Rs. 1.16 lakh crore, with the likely implementation of the 7th Pay Commission award, said the statement tabled by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Source: NDTV

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