A meeting was held on 25th February,
2015 in Conference Room No.190, North Block, New Delhi with the representatives
of the Staff Side under the Chairmanship of Secretary (Personnel). A list of
participants who attended the meeting is annexed.
2. At the outset, the Chairman welcomed
the representatives of the Staff Side and Official Side and expressed his firm
belief and conviction that all the issues/demands can be resolved through the
consultative process. He also indicated that the next (47th) meeting of the
National Council (JCM) is likely to be scheduled soon under the Chairmanship of
Cabinet Secretary. Thereafter, the Chairman invited the Leader and Secretary of
Staff Side for their opening remarks.
3. Shri M. Raghaviah, Leader of the Staff
Side welcomed the new Chairman. He thanked the Chairman and conveyed the
appreciation of the Staff Side for convening the meeting. He mentioned that
presently JCM is almost defunct which has caused much anguish and frustration.
He observed that the basic framework for which Joint Consultative Machinery
(JCM) has been set up is defeated if meetings are not held and no result
oriented interaction takes place. He complained that even issues agreed upon do
not result in appropriate orders being issued by the Government and cogent replies
are not given in case of rejection of proposal.
4. While thanking the Chairman, the
Secretary Staff side, Shri Shiva Gopal Mishra, stated the anguish of the
Central Government Employees about communication deadlock. He also mentioned
that no dialogue policy of the Official Side has left the Staff Side with no
option except to agitate the issue. He further mentioned that no date has been
fixed for National Anomaly Committee and that no meeting of the National
Council has been fixed till date. All the above shows that the government does
not want to resolve the problems of the Central Government Employees in a peaceful
manner and this is the reason that all the constituents of National Council JCM
had decided for sustained struggle with massive demonstration before the Parliament
on 28th April. He further hoped that, the Government will take a note and will
resolve the issues raised in their Declaration.
5. It was also pointed out by other
Members from Staff Side that many anomalies of 6th CPC have not been resolved
and since 7th CPC has been constituted, this has become an excuse to keep the
anomalies pending as they stand referred to the 7th CPC. If confrontation is to
be avoided, the legitimate demands should be settled and action taken on agreed
area like stepping up of pay in the matter of pay fixation anomaly. They
pointed out that since meetings of the JCM are not held regularly, it gives the
impression that the government is not interested to settle the issues
positively and the JCM is being treated casually. This is a painful situation
as even Departmental Council meetings are not taking place which leads to
plethora of litigations. It was also brought out that a Memorandum was
submitted earlier by Staff Side for merger of DA and interim relief in view of
the erosion of the value of rupees and cost hike. Thereafter, the issues as per
the Charter of Demands were taken up for discussion.
1. Effect wage
revision of Central Government employees from 1.1.2014 accepting the memorandum
of the staff side JCM; ensure 5- year wage revision in future; grant interim
relief and merger of 100% of DA. Ensure submission of the 7th CPC report with
the stipulated time frame of 18 months; include Grameen Dak Sewaks within the
ambit of the 7th CPC. Settle all anomalies of the 6th CPC.
The Staff Side stated that a
memorandum was submitted to 7th CPC for merger of DA and Interim Relief, and
the Commission has forwarded the same to the government. Now, the government
must take a decision on the memorandum itself or amend the terms of reference
to enable the CPC to make their recommendations on the twin issues Staff Side
also pointed out that there was no laid down periodicity rule setting up of Pay
Commissions but by convention it has been done after every ten years. The Staff
Side stated that the wage revision must be made every five years as is the case
in the Banking and Insurance Sector and other Public Sector Undertakings.
With regard to the 7th CPC recommendations, the staff side wanted
these to be given effect from 01.01.2014.
Regarding Grameen Dak Sewaks, the
staff side wanted the Government to amend the terms of reference of 7th CPC to
include Grameen Dak Sewaks as a category of employees as the Supreme Court has
declared them as holders of civil post.
It was also submitted by the Staff
Side that Interim relief is not part of the TOR of CPC. However, it can be made
as part of the TOR even now by the government Staff Side was of the view that
the Interim Relief should not be linked to the delay in the submission of the
report by the CPC but should be construed as necessary in view of the erosion
of the real value of wages on account of inflation. This was noted by the
Chairman.
2.
No
privatization, PPP or FDI in Railways and Defence Establishments and no
corporatization of postal services;
The Staff Side shown its concern on
silence of the Government of India on their demand for trans discussion on FDI
and PPP Staff Side vehemently opposed 100% FDI in the Railways and 49% FDI in
Defense Establishment.
The Staff was advised to meet and
discuss the issue with the concerned departments.
3.
Non-resolving
of the issues as referred by the Ministry of Railways to MoF (Exp.)
With regard to the demand for settling
the anomalies of 6th CPC, the staff side submitted that the Ministry of
Railways had sent certain proposals to the Department of Expenditure on which
no action has been taken till date. The Grade Pay based MACP has created
administrative and other problems in Railways and they added that there was no
cadre with the grade pay of Rs.2000 in Railways. The staff side also pointed
out that the decision to hold the meeting of the NAC has not been honoured so
far. The Official Side stated that the proposals of the Ministry of Railways
will be sorted out between Railway Board and Department of Expenditure. The
Staff Side further stated that there are several items in the NAC pending
settlement. Some agenda items have not
been subjected to discussion even once. The Chairman agreed to convene the
meeting of NAC shortly.
4.
No Ban on recruitment/creation of post.
Regarding ban on recruitment, the
Official side stated that there is no ban on recruitment. They further stated
that with regard to ban on creation of posts, exceptions are made for
operational needs.
5.
Scrap
PFRDA Act and re-introduce the defined benefit statutory pension scheme.
The Staff Side submitted that the
Supreme Court had 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 rescind the PFRDA Act. The recent decision of the Cabinet to allow
FDI in pension fund operations has made the real intent of the PFRDA Act
unambiguously clear. The FDI will facilitate the mutual fund operators to
invest the funds outside India. It is clear that the decision behind the
contributory pension scheme was the pressure imposed on Government and taken
without consulting Staff Side and therefore it is to be opposed at all cost and
with vehemence. The Govt. should not go ahead with its intention of induction
of FDI in pension fund companies. The Staff Side demanded to (i) restore the
old pension scheme. (ii) abolish PFRDA and amend the New Pension Scheme. The
proposal from the Ministry of Railways regarding replacement of National
Pension Scheme (NPS) with Old Pension Scheme was sent to Ministry of Finance on
29.03.2014, which needs to be agreed to. The Department of Financial Services
gave details on the scheme, asserting the comparative benefits of the
contributory pension scheme. Reacting to the presentation, the staff side
requested that official side to make the contributory pension scheme optional
and the employees might opt for the same if the new scheme is beneficial as
presented by the official side. It was decided that the staff side will discuss
the issue with the Department of Financial Services further.
6.
No
outsourcing; contractorisation, privatization of governmental functions;
withdraw the proposed move to close down the Printing Presses; the publication,
form store and stationery departments and Medical Stores Depots; regularize the
existing daily rated/casual and contract workers and absorption of trained
apprentices;
Staff Side demanded that due to the
ban on creation of posts and recruitment of personnel continuing for a very
long period, there was consequent strain on the existing workers and many
Departmental heads had to recruit personnel on daily rated basis or as casual
workers. Thus, almost 2
5 % of the present work
force in Governmental organizations are casual workers deployed to do the
permanent and perennial nature of jobs, contrary to the prohibition of such
unfair labour practices by the law of the land. In fifties and sixties, 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 now recruited as casual
workers and kept as such for years together. As per information now made
available on the floor of the Parliament, the number of contract workers
engaged by various public sector undertakings and Governmental organizations is
very large. They are paid pittance of a salary with no benefits like provident
fund, DA and 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.
Staff Side demanded that privatization
and corporatization must not be allowed. It was informed by official side that
the meeting in the Departments of (Railways & Postal) have taken place in
this matter and dialogue is continuing.
Regarding Printing Press,
representative of Ministry of Urban Development stated that it was looking into
it in a holistic manner and no final decision has yet been taken on
privatization of printing presses.
The Ministry of Health representative
said that there was no plans to close the Medical Stores Depots. A Society was
being floated for better supplies of medicines. It was decided that Staff Side
will have a meeting with Ministry of Health & Family Welfare/Ministry
of Urban Development separately.
7.
Revive
the JCM functioning at all levels as an effective negotiating forum for
settlement of the demands of the Central Government Employees (CGEs).
This issue was not discussed.
8.
Remove
the arbitrary ceiling on compassionate appointments.
The Staff Side has submitted that on
the plea of a Supreme Court directive, Government introduced a 5% ceiling on
the compassionate appointments. When the matter was taken up by the Staff side
in the National Council the Govt. was not able to produce any such direction of
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 that the issue will be revisited in the
light of the discussion, but nothing happened thereafter. 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 candidates selected by Selection Committee were denied jobs. Some
candidates approached the Court and obtained favorable order. But the Court
directive was made applicable to only those who approached the Court. Such an
assurance is being breached by the provisions of limiting such appointments to
5% of vacancies therefore must be
done away with.
It was agreed that DoPT will revisit
the issue.
9.
Other
issues were deferred for next meeting.
10. It was agreed that the pending issues
on the National Anomaly Committee would also be discussed further. In the case
of MACP issues, Ministry of Railways would be requested to respond to the same
in consultation with DoPT and Department of Expenditure. As regards the issue
relating to stepping up of pay Department of Expenditure would be requested to
respond to the issue.
11.
Staff
Side Members from the Ministry of Defence flagged the following issues for
reconsideration by DoPT:-
(i)
As
per provisions of CCS (RP) Rules, 2008, merger of unskilled and Semi-skilled in
the Workshop Staff has taken effect from 01.01.2006. Accordingly, as per DoPT
guidelines, ACP granted to the labourers (Unskilled and Semi-skilled) of
Ministry of Defence may be reviewed, for which an exemption of trade test is
required. The MoD recommended the case to DoPT for their approval, however,
DoPT has rejected the case on the plea that the ACP, already granted, need not
be reviewed since merger of the Unskilled and Semi-skilled has taken place from
01.09.2008.
(ii)
Defence Civilan Employees are always paid a
higher rate of Risk Allowance when compared to other Central Government
Employees since they are working in highly hazardous and risky jobs. Risk Allowance
rate of Defence Civilan Employees may be revised to 6th CPC pay scales.
(iii)
CAT, Principal Bench and also Supreme Court
have ruled that Night Duty Allowance of Defence Civilian Employees may be
revised in 6th CPC pay scales. However, judgments are not
implemented.
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