Dear Comrades,
CHARTER
OF DEMANDS WITH BRIEF NOTES
Item
No. 1. Revision of wage with effect from. 01.01.2011:
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. The National Council JCM set up a National
Anomaly Committee to deal with these issues which are common to all CGEs and
directed the Ministries and Departments to set up such anomaly committees at
the Departmental level to deal with department specific issues. As has been mentioned elsewhere in this memorandum,
the effectiveness of JCM as potent forum to settle issues has been eroded over
the years by systematically tinkering with its functioning by the official
side. Though the National Anomaly
Committee met 4-5 times, it could not settle any major issues. The MACP,
introduced by the Government in replacement of the ACP Scheme already in vogue
has not gone to improve the career prospects of the employees due to various
untenable stipulations made in the order by the DOPT. The Government has refused to act upon the
Tribunal’s decision in the matter . Nor
has it brought about any settlement on this issue through bilateral discussions
at the National Anomaly Committee.
The Grameen 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. As has been
mentioned elsewhere in this memorandum, 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, it must be ensured that
the next Pay Commission when it is set up will 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 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 of wage negotiation in
the given circumstance. 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 its report. 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
and arrive at conclusion. This apart,
certain administrative delay cannot also be avoided. The methodology adopted for compensating
the erosion in the real value of wages had been the merger of DA with Pay. 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. However, the Government refused to extend
the said benefit to the Grameen Dak Sewaks for no reason. Presently, the Dearness compensation is 65%
as on 1.1.2012. As on 1.1.2011, the DA
was at the rate of 50%. 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 crosses 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 50% of DA with pay for all purposes to
compensate the erosion of the real value of wages of the Central Government
employees including the Grameen Dak Sewaks.
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 directive from 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 for
the reconsideration of the issue in the light of the discussion, but nothing
happened till date. . 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 compassionate
appointment 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. Despite that various courts have struck down
this untenable stipulation, the Government has chosen to file 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 Government has announced
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 from the Prime
Minister’s office, 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 DR vacancies.
This has to be done away with. We therefore urge the Honourable Prime
Minister that direction may be issued to do away with the stipulation and
compassionate appointments be given to all deserving candidates.
Item
No.4. Functioning of the JCM and implementation of the arbitration award.
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 of the working class in the country against
the neo liberal economic policies of the Government on 28th Feb. 2012, the Joint Secretary (Estt.) in the Department of
Personnel wrote as under in her demi-official communication addressed to all
Secretaries of the Government of India, which is contrary to facts and
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. We request that the Department of Personnel,
which is the nodal department for ensuring the functioning of the negotiating
machinery is advised to 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, may please be asked 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 may be asked
to process the application and take decision in the matter immediately as the
recognition rules have come into existence in 1993 that is about a decade back.
Item
No. 5. 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 2/3rd vacancies
permanently.
Since it was
impossible to carry on the functions assigned to the Departments, 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 equal number of Group C and
D 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 by 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. 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. In
the circumstances, we urge upon you to kindly direct all the Departments of the
Government of India to immediately fill up all the existing vacancies.
The Government has
a time tested and scientific system of assessing the workload and measuring the
manpower requirement on the basis of the periodical changes that takes
place from time to time. This seems to have been presently abandoned
and the vacancies except in a few cases are not being filled up and no new
posts are created, except in Group A cadres, even though there had been
phenomenal increase in the workload in each department. 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.
We request that commensurate posts that are needed to cope up with the
increasing workload may be sanctioned and recruitment of personnel resorted to
so that the assigned functions of each department could be carried out
effectively and efficiently. Existing vacancies
Item
No. 6. Downsizing, outsourcing,
contractorisation etc.
Due to the situation that came into being because of the 2001 directive
of the Government, as explained in the preceding paragraphs and due to the
pursuance of the neo- liberal economic policies, many departments had to resort
to outsourcing of its functions. Some
departments 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 service from the
Government departments. 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 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.
Item
No. 7. 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. 8(a) Regularization of daily rated workers.
Regularization
of
Casual/Contingent/daily rated workers.
In most of the Departments, as detailed elsewhere in this memorandum,
the Departmental heads had to recruit personnel on daily rated basis or
as
casual workers due to the ban on recruitment to cope up with the
increasing
workload. Almost 25% of the present
workforce in Governmental organizations is casual workers deployed to do
the
permanent and perennial nature of jobs, despite the fact that the labour
laws
do not allow assigning such jobs to casual workers. In 1950s and 1960,
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 recruited as casual workers and kept in the employment continuously
for
want of permanent hands. 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 regularization,
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
organizations, they are recruited through employment exchanges as daily
rated workers, 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 finalization of such a scheme for regularization,
the non regular employees who are recruited by the heads of departments
for
meeting the exigencies of work must be paid at least the minimum of the
salary, which are paid to
the similarly placed regular employees on the basis of equal pay for
equal
work.
Item
No. 8(b). 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 legislation 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 area 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 whereby all the service
conditions of the Civil Servants.
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 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 6th CPC 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.
It is, therefore, urged that the Bonus entitlement be computed on the
basis of the actual emoluments an employee receives.
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 of compensation 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 applicable as if the
pay is not revised at all. 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. We request that the Department of
Personnel/Department of Expenditure be asked to issue necessary revised
instruction in the matter in acceptance of the Board of Arbitration award
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. It is the delay that
has been responsible for
the increase in the financial implications as the awards are to be
implemented
from the date mentioned by the Board of Arbitration in their order. 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. We urge that the concerned
Ministries may be advised to accept these awards and implement the same
for
such a direction will bring in confidence and respect amongst the
employees
over the Governmental actions.
Item
No. 12.Vacate All Trade Union victimization.
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, are
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
appeal to the Honourable Prime Minister to kindly 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. 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 against the vindictive actions of various
Accountant Generals.
Item
No. 13. 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. 14 :Career progression:
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.15: 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
36 years because of the reason that as
per the announced scheme, the Government is to contribute the same amount to
the fund as the employees contribute. 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 reasons too:
(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
has 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.
