POSTAL JOINT COUNCIL OF
ACTION
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF
POSTAL EMPLOYEES
FEDERATION OF NATIONAL
POSTAL ORGANISATIONS
PF-No.PF-PJCA/2016
Dated:16th September, 2016
To
The Secretary,
Department of Post,
Sansad Marg,
Dak Bhawan,
NOTE ON ALLOWANCES
1. The recommendation of the 7th CPC
that Tough Location Allowance will not be admissible alongiwth Special Duty
Allowance (SDA) should not be accepted by Government.
In
para 8.10.62 of the 7th CPC the following recommendation is
made –
Para
8.10.62 - There are some “Special Compensatory” Allowances
that are based on geographical location and are meant to compensate for
hardship faced by employees posted in such places. It is proposed to subsume
these allowances under the umbrella of “Tough Location Allowance”.
In
Para 8.10.63 the Commission made the following recommendations –
“The
Tough Location Allowance will, however, not be admissible along with Special
Duty Allowance”.
At
present, special allowances are paid in the following places along with Special
Duty Allowance.
(a) Assam
and North Easter Region – Special Compensatory allowance paid alongwith
Special Duty Allowance.
(b) Andaman
& Nicobar Islands – Special Compensatory Allowance paid alongwith
Island Special Duty Allowance.
(c) Tripura
Special Compensatory Remote Locality Allowance paid along with Special
Duty Allowance.
Demand of the staff
side: In all the above cases “Tough Location
Allowance” may be paid along with Special Duty Allowance. Withdrawal of any of
the above allowances, will result in substantial financial loss to the
employees. An existing benefit should not be withdrawn, under the pretext of 7th CPC’s
unjustified recommendation.
2. Special Duty Allowance in
N. E. Region should be uniform for all at 30%.
In
Para 8.17.115 the 7th CPC made the following observation –
“Special
Duty Allowance (SDA) is granted to attract civilian employees to seek posting
in North Eastern and Ladhak Regions, in view of the risk and hardship
prevailing in these areas. Currently the rate of SDA is 37.5% of Basic Pay for
AIS officers and 12.5% of Basic Pay for other employees.
In
para 8.17.118 the Commission made the following recommendation –
“Accordingly
in line with our general approach of rationalizing the percentage based allowance
by a factor of 0.8, SDA for AIS officers should be paid at the rate of 30% of
Basic Pay and for other civilian employees at the rate of 10% of their basic
pay.
Demand of the staff
side: The
discrimination between AIS officers and other civilian employees in payment of
SDA should not be there and all may be paid at the same rate i.e. at the rate
of 30% recommended by the pay commission for AIS officers.
3. Allowances which are not
reported to 7th CPC by the concerned departments.
In
para 8.2.5 of the report, the 7th CPC made the following
recommendation.
“We
have considered all allowances reported to us, in this chapter. Any allowances,
not mentioned here (And hence not reported to the commission) shall cease to
exist immediately. In case there is any demand or requirement for continuation
of an existing allowance which has not been deliberated upon or covered in this
report, it should be re-notified by the ministry concerned after obtaining due
approval of Ministry of Finance and should be put in the public domain”.
Demand of the Staff
Side: The
above recommendation should not be accepted, as it amounts to penalizing
employees for the fault of the departmental heads. The following allowance
which are not reported to the commission should be retained and enhanced.
(a) PO
& RMS Accountants’ Special allowance
Postal
Assistants and Sorting Assistants of Postal department are posted as PO &
RMS Accountant after passing a qualifying examination. Taking into
consideration their work which require much skill, application of mind, and
knowledge of all rulings, Special allowance is granted to them. This allowance
may beretained and enhanced.
4. Savings Bank Allowance in
Post offices:
In
Department of Posts, Savings Bank Allowance is granted to Postal Assistant
working in Post Office Savings Bank (POSB) for shouldering strenuous and
complicated nature of Savings Bank work. Postal Assistants need to qualify an
aptitude test to get this allowance. The current rates are Rs.300/- per month
for fully engaged staff and Rs.150/- per month for partially engaged staff.
In
para 8.10.80 of the report, the Commission recommended as follows:
“Savings
Bank Allowance be abolished as the justification provided by the concerned
ministry for the grant of this allowance is not sufficient for their
continuance”.
Demand of staff side:
Savings Bank Allowance
should be retained and enhanced in view of the justification given above.
5. Special Compensatory (Hill
area) Allowance
In
para 8.10.50 of the report, the 7th CPC made the following
recommendation – “There is hardly any hardship involved at altitude of 1000
meters (more than 3000 feets) above sea level. Hence, it is recommended that
the allowance should be abolished.
Demand of the staff
side:
The above observation of
the commission is not based on ground realities but based on presumption. Hence
the above allowance should be retained and enhanced.
6. Family Planning Allowance
In
para 8.17.50 of the report, the 7th CPC made the following
recommendations – “The commission recognizes the fact that most of the benefit
related to children viz. children Education Allowance, maternity Leave, LTC
etc. are available for two children only. Moreover, the level of awareness
regarding appropriate family size has also gone up among Government servants.
Hence, a separate allowance aimed towards population control is not required.
Accordingly, it is recommended that family planning allowance should be abolished.
Demand of the staff
side: The
above allowance may be retained. In any case, the Family Planning
Allowance already granted should not be withdrawn.
7. Fixed Medical Allowance
In
Para 8.17.51 of the report the 7th CPC observed as follows
–
It
is granted to pensioners for meeting expenditure on day to day medical expenses
that do not require hospitalization, presently payable at the rate of Rs.500/-
p.m. Demands have been received to increase the rate of this allowance to
Rs.2000/-.
In
para 8.17.52 the Commission made the following recommendation-
The
Commission notes that the allowance was enhanced from Rs.300/- to Rs.500/- p.m
from 19.11.2014. As such, further enhancement of this allowance is not
recommended.
Demand of the staff
side: in the memorandum submitted to 7th CPC,
the staff side had elaborately explained the justification for enhancing the
FMA to Rs.2000/-. As everybody knows, old age persons are suffering from many
deceases and as the cost of medicines has increased manifold the expenditure on
outdoor medical treatment has also gone up like anything. With Rs.500/- p.m no
pensioner can meet the medical expenses. The commission has not conducted any
scientific and realistic study, but simply rejected the demand stating that it
is enhanced recently. It is once again requested that the FMA for pensioners
may be enhanced to Rs.2000/- p.m as in the case of EPF pensioners.
8. Cash handling Allowance
In
para 8.10.9 of the report, the 7th CPC observed as
follows: -
It
is paid to cashiers working in Central Government departments, for handling of
cash. The current rates are –
|
Average amount of monthly cash disbursed
|
Rate per month
|
|
Below Rs. 50000
|
230
|
|
Over Rs. 50000 upto 200000
|
450
|
|
Over 200000 upto 500000
|
600
|
|
Over 500000 upto 1000000
|
750
|
|
Above 1000000
|
900
|
Again
in Para 8.10.57 the commission observed as follows: -
Treasury Allowance –
This allowance is granted
in Department of Posts to Treasurers and Assistant Treasurers working in Head
Post offices and large Sub Post offices for handling cash. The present rate is
Rs.360/- p.m for handling cash upto Rs.2 lakhs and Rs.480/- p.m. for handling
cash more than Rs.2 lakhs.
In
para 8.10.80 the commission made the following recommendation
Assistant
cashier Allowance, Cash handling allowance and Treasury Allowance –
With
technological advances and growing emphasis on banking, these allowances have
lost their relevance. Hence it is recommended that not only all salary be paid
through banks, but Ministries/departments should work out plans to first
minimize and then eliminate all sorts of cash transactions.
Demand of the staff
Side: The
recommendation of the Commission is not realistic. Till that time the cash
transactions are eliminated the Cash handling allowance and Treasury allowance
should be retained and enhanced.
9. Cycle Allowance
In
para 8.15.10 of the report the 7th CPC made the following
observation.
“It
is paid where the duties attached to the post require extensive use of bicycle
and the official concerned has to use and maintain his own cycle for
official journeys. The existing rate is Rs.90 p.m.
In
para 15.11 the commission made the following recommendation –
“The
Commission is of the view that amount of this allowance is megre and the
allowance itself is outdated. Hence it should be abolished.
Demand of the staff
side:
This allowance is at
present given to more than 40000 Postmen staff and about 50000 GraminDakSevaks
of the Postal Department. When the commission itself observed that an official
using his own bicycle for official duties has to incur expenditure for
maintenance of the cycle. When the maintenance work is done for performing
official duties, the amount should be reimbursed to the official, whether the
amount is megre or not – Hence this allowance should be retained and enhanced.
10. Overtime Allowance
In
para 8.17.97 of the report the 7th CPC made the following
recommendations -
Hence
while this commission shares the sentiments of the predecessors that Government
offices need to increase productivity and efficiency and recommended that OTA
should be abolished (except for operational staff and industrial employees
who are governed by statutory provisions) at the same time it is also
recommended that in case the Government decides to continue with OTA for these
categories of staff for which it is not statutory requirement, then the rate of
OTA for such staff should be increased by 50% from their current levels.
Demand of the staff
side:
OTA rates are revised in
the year 1987. For the last 30 years no revision has taken place. Eventhough an
arbitration award for enhancement is given, the same is also pending
implementation for the last 20 years. After 7th CPC revision,
one hour wage of an MTS is Rs. 75/- where as rate for one hour OTA is Rs.15.85
only!!! Hence it is requested that overtime allowance wherever sanctioned must
be based upon the actual basic pay of the entitled employee.
11. Dress Allowance
(a) Para
08.16.14 may be referred. The 7th CPC recommended four slabs of
Dress allowance per year for various categories of employees. In the Department
of Posts there are about 75000 Postmen and Multi-Tasking staff wearing
uniform. Their name is not mentioned in the category of employees shown in
the table. Even if it is included in the other categories of staff, then
the Dress Allowance per year will be Rs.5000/- only. At present the Postmen/MTS
staff of Postal department are getting more than Rs.5000/- for uniform plus
washing allowance. Hence it should be made clear under which category the
Postmen and MTS staff of Postal department are to be included, in the dress
allowance table recommended by the 7th CPC. These official may
be granted Rs.10000/- as dress allowance.
(b)
It is further demanded that the Dress Allowance ceiling to be raised to
Rs.32400 per annum.
(c)
If cloth for dress is provided stitching charges should be revised reasonably.
(d)
Washing allowance should be increased from Rs.90/- to 150/- Rupees per month.
Yours faithfully,
(D.
Theagarajan)
(R.N. Parashar)
Secretary
General
FNPO
Secretary
General
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