RALLY AT ANUSHAKTHI NAGAR
on 11.02.2014
on the eve of 48 hours strike of
Central Government Employees
on 12th & 13th February 2014
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF ATOMIC ENERGY EMPLOYEES (NFAEE) formed in the year 1997 and got recognition under CCS (RSA) Rule in the year 2007. The head quarters of the Federation is at Mumbai.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Monday, February 10, 2014
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF ATOMIC ENERGY
EMPLOYEES
strike ! strike !! strike !!!
in every UNIT OF department OF ATOMIC
ENERGY,
there is only one talk
strike
! strike !! strike !!! strike !!!!
to protest against the INDIFFERENT
and negative attitude of the central government.
BE READY FOR INDUSTRIAL ACTION
from 2014 february 12th
00.00 am onwards more than thirteen lakhs central govt. employees shall go on
two days
nationwide strike
shut down all central govERNMENt offices on
12th & 13th FEBRUARY
We demand:
mergeR of da
interim relief
date of effecet
of 7th cpc from 01-01-2014
REVISE THE
OTA & NDA
scrap new
pension scheme & rescind pfrda act
five promotions
civil
servant status for gramin dak sevaks
inclusion of
gds in seventh cpc
regularisation & revision of wages
of casual labourers
filling up of all vacant posts
STOP outsourcing,
downsizing, contractorisation & privatisation
stop price rise
CONFEDERATION OF CENTRAL
GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES AND WORKERS
North Avenue
Post office, First floor, New Delhi. 110 001.
Dated:
4th Feb. 2014
EXPLANATORY NOTE ON DEMANDS
Item No. 1. Revision of wage with effect from. 01.,01..2014.
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. They were assured to be looked into and settled
through negotiations in the JCM. The effectiveness of JCM as a potent forum to
settle issues has been eroded over the years. Thus, though the National Anomaly
Committee met 4-5 times, it could not settle any major issues.
The minimum
wage determined by the 6th CPC was at a far lesser amount
than what an unskilled worker is entitled to. Morevoer, the Commission
assigned the so determined minimum wage to be the wage of a skilled
worker.. It excluded persons below matriculation qualification from
the purview of Government employment. In a country where one third people
are illiterate, such controversial recommendations have only gone to absolve
the State from its solemn responsibility to provide employment to the persons at
the lower strata of the society. The wage structure evolved by the 6th
CPC deviated drastically from the concepts emerged from the deliberations over
decades in the matter of wage determination of civil servants and is
beset with innumerable anomalies necessitating a thorough overhaul , which can
only be attempted by setting up another Commission with appropriate terms of
reference.
The
Gramin 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. 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, the next Pay
Commission when it is set up must 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
therefore set up the 7th CPC immediately.
However to
reach uniformity among the Staff Side on the demand, the date of effect of wage Revision, the
demand has been modified that Revision of wage with effect from 01.01.2014 and
the future wage revision should be in every five years.
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. 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 their reports. 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 for the 6th CPC
recommendations when implemented has given rise to large number of anomalies
and cadre related grievances. The methodology adopted for compensating the
erosion in the real value of wages in the in the interregnum period had always
been though the mechanism of merger of a portion of DA. 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. It is pertinent to mention
that even this benefit was denied to the GDS. As on 1.1.201, the Dearness
compensation was 65%. 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 crossed 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 atleast 50% of DA
with pay to compensate the erosion of the real value of wages immediately.
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
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. The list of selected candidates
was scrapped. These candidates approached the Court and obtained a favourable
order. But the Court directive was not acted upon. The Government has
chosen to dilly dally by filing 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
Prime Minister's office ordered 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, 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 vacancies. This
condition, therefore, must be done away with.
Item No. 4(a). 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 much 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 areas 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.
Item No. 4(b) Regularisation of daily rated workers.
Due to the
ban on creation of posts and recruitment of personnel that continued for a very
long period and the consequent strain on the existing workers, many
Departmental heads had to recruit personnel on daily rated basis or as casual
workers. Thus, almost 25% of the present workforces in Governmental
organisations 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. 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 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 recruited for meeting the exigencies
of work must be paid pro-rata salary on par with the similarly placed regular
employees on the principle of equal pay for equal work.
Item No.5. Functioning of the JCM.
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 on 28th Feb. 2012, the Joint Secretary
(Estt.) in the Department of Personnel wrote in her demi-official communication
addressed to all Secretaries of the Government of India as under, which is
contrary to facts but also 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. The Department of Personnel, which is the nodal department for
ensuring the functioning of the negotiating machinery, must 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, is required to ensure 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 must be
asked to process the application and take decision in the matter within a fixed
time frame as the recognition rules have come into existence in 1993 that is
about a decade back.
Item No. 6. 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 with large
number of vacant posts, 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 Group C and D posts even in the
place of require Gr.A 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 b y 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, besides accentuating the unemployment
situation to alarming proportion. 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. The Govt. encouraged
this endeavour by providing unlimited funds. In the circumstances, it is imperative
that the sanctioned Strength as on 1.01.2001 is restored and the consequent
vacancies filled up by a special drive for recruitment.
The
Government has a time tested and scientific system of assessing the workload
and measuring the manpower requirement. This seems to have been presently
abandoned and the vacancies barring in a few cases are not being filled up.
Even though there had been phenomenal increase in the workload in each
department no new posts are created to cope up with the situation. 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. The commensurate
posts that are needed to cope up with the increasing workload must be
sanctioned and recruitment of personnel resorted to so that the assigned
functions of each department could be carried out effectively and efficiently.
Item No. 7. Downsizing, outsourcing,
contractorisation etc.
To overcome
the difficulties emanated from the total ban on recruitment and creation of
posts and more specifically impacted by the 2001 executive fiat of the Govt. of
India in the matter, many departments had to resort to outsourcing of its
functions. Some 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
requisite service.. 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 employees 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. The practice of outsourcing and
contractorisation is nothing but a cruel exploitation of the alarming situation
of unemployment. The system of outsourcing of the functions
seeks to informalise the workforce. The contract/casual workers get
not even one third of the salary of the regular work force. They
have no social security benefits like pension, provident fund gratuity
etc. The CG employees fought against the temporary service rules which
was in vogue in sixties and ensured that the recruitment to Government
service is permanent and the civil servants are not allowed to be fired at the
whim and fancy of their bosses. The outsourcing and contractorisation has
paved way for large scale entry of casual workers and has resulted in the
reversal of what all achieved in this direction through struggles in the past
two decades.
Item No. 8. 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. 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
the entitled 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. The
Bonus entitlement must be computed on the basis of the actual emoluments of an
employee.
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 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 on the basis of the 4th
CPC pay structure. 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. The Government must accept the award of the Board and issue instructions
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. The figures quoted by
the official side included the arrears that have become due to the delay in
taking decisions. The financial implication is normally computed as a
total outlay for a period of a year. The official side has in fact only
tried to mislead the Parliament in order to obtain a rejection of the award.
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. The Government must accept these awards and implement
the same for such a direction will bring in confidence in the efficacy of the
negotiating forum and a sense of reasonableness in the decision making
process.
Item No. 12. 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. 13 :Career progression: Grant five promotion
in the service career.
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.14: 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 four decades because of the reason that as
per the announced scheme, the Government is to contribute the same amount to
the fund as the employees make. 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 solid reasons:
(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 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
withdraw the PFRDA bill from the Parliament.
The recent
decision of the Cabinet to allow FDI in pension fund operations has made the
real intent of the PFRDA bill unambiguously clear. The FDI will facilitate the
mutual fund operators to invest the funds outside India thereby making Indian
Savings available for development of a foreign country. It is now clear that
the decision behind the contributory pension scheme was the pressure imposed by
imperialist powers and more specifically IMF. It has, therefore, to be
opposed at all cost and with vehemence. The Govt. must not be allowed to
go ahead with its intention of induction of FDI in pension fund companies.
The one day strike on 12th December, 2012 must be seen as a
beginning of the sustained and incessant struggles in the days to come.
Item No. 15.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 is granted. In the
name of discipline, dissenting voice, howsoever genuine they are, is 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 appealed to
the Honourable Prime Minister to 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. We also requested that 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. Not only no action has been
initiated by the C&AG in this direction but the vindictive attitude of
the Accountant Generals continues to persist. The Government is required to
interfere and bring about a peaceful atmosphere in this prestigious
institution.
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