National Federation of Atomic Energy
Employees
NFAEE
DEPARTMENT OF ATOMIC ENERGY
Regn.No.17/9615
Recognised by DAE vide DAE OM No. 8/1/2007 – IR&W/95 dated 13th June 2007
NFAEE OFFICE, Opp: NIYAMAK BHAVAN,
Anusaktinagar, Mumbai 400 094
Web site: www.nfaeehq.blogspot.com;
Email address: nfaee@yahoo.com
JOIN IN WEEK LONG DHARNA
02.09.2013 TO 07.09.2013
BY CENTRAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES ACROSS THE COUNTRY
ORGANISED BY
CONFEDERATION OF CENTRAL GOVERNEMNT EMPLOYEES & WORKERS
CHARTER OF DEMANDS
Item No. 1. Revision of wage with effect from. 1.,01..2011
Item No. 2. Merger of DA with pay
Item No. 3. Compassionate
appointments
Item No.4. Functioning of the JCM and implementation
of the arbitration award
Item No. 5. Remove the ban on recruitment and creation of posts
Item No. 6. Downsizing, outsourcing, contractorisation etc
Item No. 7. Stop price rise and strengthen PDS
Item No. 8(a) Regularisation of daily rated workers
Item No. 8(b).
Absorption of GDS as regular postal employees
Item No. 9.Introduction of PLB and removal of ceiling limit
Item No. 10. Revising OTA and Night Duty allowance rates
Item No.11.
Arbitration Awards
Item No. 12. Vacate
All Trade Union victimisation
Item No. 13. Right to strike
Item No. 14 :Career
progression
Item No.15: Scrap
the New Pension Scheme
CONFEDERATION OF CENTRAL GOVERNMENT
EMPLOYEES & WORKERS
CCGEW
CHARTER OF DEMANDS
Item No. 1. Revision of wage with effect from. 1.,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 judgments
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 there from (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 meager 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 meager
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) Regularisation of daily rated workers.
Regularisation 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 organisations 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
regularisation, 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 organisations, 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 finalisation of such a scheme for
regularisation, 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 meager 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 Government 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 referred 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 meager. 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 victimisation.
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 schemes.
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.
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