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National Federation of Atomic EnergyEmployees
NFAEE
DEPARTMENT
OF ATOMIC ENERGY
Regn.No.17/9615
Recognised by DAE vide DAE OM No.
NFAEE OFFICE, Opp: NIYAMAK BHAVAN,
Anusaktinagar, Mumbai 400 094
Web site: www.nfaeehq.blogspot.com;
Email address: nfaee@yahoo.com
|
Ref. No:
nfaee/sg/13076 06.06.2013
To
All Affiliates
NFAEE
Sub:
Confederation Call
Dear Comrades,
The 24t All India Conference of
Confederation of Central Government Employees & Workers had called upon all affiliates and the State Committees to organize a massive dharna programme on 20th June, 2013 on 15 point charter of Confederation.
The copies of the circular issued by the
Confederation HQ un this regard is attached herewith
All affiliates are requested to join in
the Dharna organized by the State /District Committees of Confederation of CG
Employees & Workers or to orgnaise Dharna
programme infront of DAE establishments.
With fraternal Greetings
Comradely yours
(Jayaraj.K.V)
Secretary
General
Address for Correspondence:
Jayaraj. KV, Secretary General, NFAEE
PESS/UED; BARC, Trombay,
Mumbai 400 085
Tel. No:
(O): 022 – 25596519; (Res): 022 – 2746 4704; (Mobile): 9869501189
Email Address: nfaee@yahoo.com,
jrajkv@yahoo.com
CONFEDERATION
OF CENTRAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES AND WORKERS.
First Floor, North Avenue Post Office Building New Delhi
Dated: 30th May, 2013 .
Confederation 15 Point charter of Demands
Conduct Nationwide Mass Dharna on 20th June
2013
Dear Comrade,
Please refer to
Confederation CHQ circular dated 22nd May
2013 copy of which is also posted to all COCs, office bearers
and Chief Executives of All India
With
greetings,
Yours fraternally,
M.Krishnan
Secretary General
CONFEDERATION
OF CENTRAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES
AND WORKERS.
1st Floor North Avenue Post Office Building
Website:confederationhq.blogspot.com
Ph. No. 011.23092771
Conf/ 2
/2013
Dated: 22nd May,, 2013 .
Dear Comrade,
The
National Conference of Confederation held at Kolkata from 4th to 6th May, 2013 had directed the Secretariat to pursue
the efforts to have a joint platform for struggles along with the Railways and
Defence Federations. As a step towards that end, a meeting with the General
Secretary of the All India
The next
meeting to discuss the pension related issues with the Secretary (Pension) will
be held on 28th May, 2013 . Com. S.K. Vyas, Advisor and Com.
K.K.N. Kutty, President will attend the meeting. A brief note on the outcome of
the discussions will be placed on the website after 28th inst.
The
Conference had also decided that the Confederation must pursue the 15 point
charter of demands through independent endeavors. Accordingly the
Conference had called upon all affiliates and the State Committees to organize
a massive dharna programme on 20th June,
2013 . The State Committees are requested to
organize the programme in consultation with the respective units of the
affiliates at all State Capitals as also other important towns and
centers. A report on the implementation of the programme may please be
sent to the CHQ by 10TH July, 2013 .
With
greetings,
Yours
fraternally,
M.Krishnan
Secretary
General.
CONFEDERATION
OF CENTRAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES
AND WORKERS.
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 judgements of the Tribunal. In the light of this directive from the Prime
Minister’s office, the SLP ought to have been withdrawn. The standing Committee
on Department of Personnel in one of their report has termed the scheme of Compassionate
ground appointments as a sacred assurance to a fresh entrant that if he dies in
harness, his family shall not be left in lurch.
Such an assurance is being breached by the provisions of limiting such
appointments to 5% of DR vacancies. This has to be done away with. We therefore
urge the Honourable Prime Minister that direction may be issued to do away with
the stipulation and compassionate appointments be given to all deserving
candidates.
Item No.4. Functioning of
the JCM and implementation of the
arbitration award.
It was in the wake of the indefinite strike action of 1960, the
JCM was set up as a negotiating forum to expedite settlement of demands and
problems of employees.
On the pretext of
the promulgation of the new CCS(RSA)Rules, most of the departments suspended
the operation of the Departmental Councils.
. Even after complying with the
requisite formalities, in many departments, Associations/Federations are yet to
be recognized. Wherever the recognition
process was completed and orders issued granting recognition, no meetings of
the Departmental Councils are held.
Inspite of raising the issue in the National Council on several
occasions by the Staff Side, nothing tangible has been done to ensure that the
councils are made functional.
The National
Council is, as per the scheme, to meet once in four months. It meets after several years, the system of
concluding on the agenda in the meeting in which it is raised has been totally
abandoned with the result that number of issues have been kept pending for
indefinite period of time. The non-
functioning of the Council and the consequent non- redressal of grievances has
led to agitations including strike action in many departments. The 6th CPC recommendations were
given effect to in September, 2008. The
anomalies arising therefrom (which is in large numbers) ought to have been
settled as per the agreement by Feb,. 2010.
Barring one or two items, no settlement has been brought about on a
large number of anomalies till date.
In the wake of
the General Strike action of the working class in the country against the neo
liberal economic policies of the Government on 28th Feb. 2012, the Joint
Secretary (Estt.) in the Department of Personnel wrote as under in her
demi-official communication addressed to all Secretaries of the Government of
India, which is contrary to facts and misleading too.
“Joint consultative machinery for Central Government employees is
already functioning. This scheme has
been introduced with the object t of promoting harmonious relations and of
securing the greatest measure of co-operation between the Government, in its
capacity as employer and the general body of its employees in matters of common
concern, and with the object further of increasing the efficiency of the public
service. The JCM at different levels
have been discussing issues brought before it for consideration and either
reaching amicable settlement or referring the matter to the Board of
Arbitration in relation to pay and allowances, weekly hours of work and leave,
wherever no amicable settlement could be reached in relation to these items.”
The forum of
Departmental Councils must be immediately revived in all Departments and made
effective as an instrument to settle the demands of the employees. The periodicity in which the meeting of the
National Council is to be held must be adhered.
We request that the Department of Personnel, which is the nodal
department for ensuring the functioning of the negotiating machinery is advised
to monitor the functioning of the Departmental Councils of various Ministries
and Departments and a report placed in the National Council. The Cabinet Secretary, who is the Chairman of
the National Council, may please be asked that the Council meetings are
convened once in four months and the issues raised therein settled in a
reasonable time frame. Since the grant
of recognition to Service Association is a pre requisite for the effective
functioning of the negotiating machinery, the Ministries may be asked to
process the application and take decision in the matter immediately as the
recognition rules have come into existence in 1993 that is about a decade back.
Item No. 5. Remove the ban on recruitment and creation of posts
In 1993, the
Government of India
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
The Government
has a time tested and scientific system of assessing the workload and measuring
the manpower requirement on the basis of the periodical changes that takes
place from time to time. This seems to have been presently abandoned
and the vacancies except in a few cases are not being filled up and no new
posts are created, except in Group A cadres, even though there had been
phenomenal increase in the workload in each department. The 6th CPC dealing with the
subject has recommended that such ban on creation of posts for a long period is
not desirable and the Departments should be empowered to create the need based
posts for its effective functioning. We
request that commensurate posts that are needed to cope up with the increasing
workload may be sanctioned and recruitment of personnel resorted to so that the
assigned functions of each department could be carried out effectively and
efficiently. Existing vacancies
Item No. 6. Downsizing,
outsourcing, contractorisation etc.
Due to the situation that came into being because of the 2001 directive
of the Government, as explained in the preceding paragraphs and due to the
pursuance of the neo- liberal economic policies, many departments had to resort
to outsourcing of its functions. Some
departments were virtually closed down and a few others were privatised or
contractorised. The large scale
outsourcing and contractorisation of functions had a telling effect on the
efficacy of the Government departments.
The delivery system was adversely affected and the public at large
suffered due to the inordinate delay it caused in getting the service from the
Government departments. The financial
outlay for outsourcing of functions of each department increased enormously
over the years. The quality of work
suffered. In order to ensure that the
people do get a better and efficient service from the Government departments
and to raise the image of the Government in the eyes of the common people, it
is necessary that the present scheme of outsourcing and contractorisation of
essential functions of the Government
must be abandoned.
Item No. 7. Stop price rise and strengthen PDS.
The abnormal
and phenomenal increase in the prices of essential commodities is an
acknowledged fact. The pursuance of the
new economic policies and consequent withdrawal of the universal public
distribution system had been per se the reason for such unbearable
inflation. The universal PDS which was
evolved to protect the food security of common people was an effective
instrument not only to arrest inflation but also to ensure that no Indian dies
of hunger. Government employees even at
the lowest wage structure i.e. the Group D and C employees are presently
precluded from the PDS as their meagre wages itself is considered to be above
the benchmark of “Below Poverty Line”.
They are to depend upon the open market for even essential food items,
which with their meagre income they are unable to access. It is, therefore, necessary that the
universal PDS as was in vogue must be brought back as the market forces have
failed to arrest inflation and price rise of essential food items.
Item No. 8(a) 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 atleast the minimum of the salary, which are paid to
the similarly placed regular employees on the basis of equal pay for equal
work.
Item No. 8(b). Absorption of GDS as regular postal employees
The postal Department
employs the largest number of Government employees, next to Railways and
Defence. Nearly half of its workforce
is called the Grameen Dak Sewaks, the new nomenclature given for the Extra Departmental Agents. The system of EDAs was evolved by the British
Colonial Government to sustain a postal system at a cheaper cost especially in
rural areas. Despite the enactment of
very many legislation to prohibit the exploitation of workers, the Government
continued with this system. No doubt in
the post independent era, at the instance and persuasion of the Unions of
regular employees, certain benefits were accorded to them. Till 1963, the GDS
or the Extra Departmental Agents were treated as Government employees and were
covered by the service conditions applicable to civil servants. However, the Department of Post reversed
this position thereafter and contended that they are not Central Government
employees. The Honourable Supreme Court in 1977 declared that they are holders
of Civil Posts. Justice Talwar Committee
appointed by the Govt. To look into the issues pertaining to GDS declared that
the GDS are holders of Civil posts and all benefits similar to regular
employees must be extended to them.
However, the Government did not accept this recommendation of the
committee which they themselves set up. On the specific suggestion of the
Postal Department, the Government set up a separate Committee called the
Natarajamurthy Committee to go into their service conditions and suggest
improvement on the lines of the recommendations of the 6th CPC. The recommendations of this Committee were
totally disappointing and the GDS in the post 6th CPC era is worse of.
Instead of utilising the service of GDS for the welfare schemes of the State in
rural area by converting them as regular employees, the Department caused
injustice to them by acting upon the recommendations of the Natarajamurthy
Committee. Recently, the Postal Department has decided that the
vacancies in the Cadre of Postmen, and MTS would not be fully made available
for promotion to the GDS and an element of open direct recruitment has been
introduced. This has decelerated the
meagre chance of the GDS being a regular Postal employee further. In order to ensure that their grievances are
properly addressed, the Postal Department must be directed to earmark all the
existing vacancies in the cadre of Postmen and MTS to the eligible GDS for
promotion and a scheme is evolved to absorb the GDS as regular full time
Government employees whereby all the service
conditions of the Civil Servants.
Item No. 9.Introduction of PLB and removal of ceiling limit
Barring the
Railways, Defence production units and Postal Department, Bonus is paid to the
Central Government employees on adhoc basis.
The 30 days adhoc bonus is the maximum that is provided to them. The 4thand 5th Central Pay Commissions
had recommended the introduction of productivity linked bonus scheme to all
Departments as is presently the case in the three Departments mentioned above.
Even the scheme of PLB is not uniform in as much as the Postal Department
introduced a ceiling on the entitled number of days of bonus whereas no such
ceiling exist either in the Railways or in the Defence Production
organisations. The Government is yet to
implement these recommendations even though several rounds of discussions on
the subject were held. There is no
reason whatsoever, as to why this recommendation could not be implemented. There had been no rise in the adhoc bonus for
past a decade even though there had been considerable amount of increase in the
case of PLB over the years. The
Department of Personnel and Expenditure may be advised to finalise the PLB
scheme without further delay for those who are in receipt of adhoc bonus.
Even though
Bonus Act is said to have no application or relevance to the Productivity
linked Bonus or adhoc bonus, the provisions of the said Act is employed to deny
bonus to the Government employees on the basis of their emoluments. The bonus entitlement in both the cases is restricted
to the computation based on the notional emoluments of Rs. 3500, while the
Postal Department went one step ahead and declared that in the case of GDS, it
would continue to be Rs. 2500.The injustice meted out to the GDS in the matter
by the Postal Department is highly deplorable.
Presently even a casual worker is entitled to get a monthly wage of more
than Rs. 3500. The minimum wage as on
1.1.2006 determined by the 6th CPC in respect of Central Government employees is Rs. 7000.
By artificially linking the restriction of emoluments stipulated by the
Bonus Act, the employees are denied their legitimate entitlement of Bonus. It is, therefore, urged that the Bonus
entitlement be computed on the basis of the actual emoluments an employee
receives.
Item No. 10. Revising OTA and Night Duty allowance rates:
Overtime
allowance is seldom given to the Government employees. In case of emergency and in the contingency
in which the work cannot be postponed, like that happens in the RMS division of
Postal Department, in the Atomic Energy Commission offices or when the
Parliament is in session in other administrative offices, employees are asked
to do work beyond the stipulated working hours.
The Night duty allowance is provided to the employees who are asked to
work in the night shifts with certain stipulated conditions. The 4th CPC recommended that since
there had been considerable misuse of the provisions relating to the grant of
OTA, the Government should find alternative methods to compensate the employees
who are asked to work on over time and pending such a scheme being evolved
recommended not to revise the rates.
However, the Govt.did not bring in any new scheme of compensation but
issued the directive that the OTA and Night duty allowance will be paid to the
employees who are called upon to do overtime or night duty applicable as if the
pay is not revised at all. This
directive is still in vogue. On quite a
number of occasions, the Staff Side pointed out the irrationality of the
directive of the Government in as much
as a person engaged for managing the excess work from outside gets better
emoluments than the over time allowance
granted to the regular employees. The
Government refused to reach an agreement in the National Council on this issue. When the Staff side pressed, the Government
came forward to record disagreement and refered
the matter to the Board of Arbitration under the JCM. Scheme. The Board of Arbitration having found the
unreasonable position taken by the Government gave out the award in favour of
the staff and directed the Government to revise the order whereby the allowance
will be linked to the actual pay of the Government employees. The Govt. did not accept this award and has
approached the Parliament for the rejection of the same. The matter has not yet been placed in the
form of a resolution in the Parliament.
Despite the fact that the employees had been abiding by the directive of
their superiors to be on overtime/night duty, and despite having won the case
before the Board of Arbitration they continue to be compensated on the basis of
the Notional pay as in 1986. There could
not have been a much bigger injustice meted out to the employees. We request that the Department of
Personnel/Department of Expenditure be asked to issue necessary revised
instruction in the matter in acceptance of the Board of Arbitration award
linking the allowance to the actual pay of the employee.
Item No.11. Arbitration Awards.
There are about
17 awards of the Board of Arbitration given in favour of the employees. On the plea that the implementation of these
awards would result in heavy financial outflow, the Govt. has moved resolutions
in the Parliament for the rejection of these awards. The fact is that the financial burden on account
of acceptance of these awards is meagre.
It is the delay that has been responsible for the increase in the
financial implications as the awards are to be implemented from the date
mentioned by the Board of Arbitration in their order. A few years back, the staff side agreed to alter the date of implementation of
these awards in order to reduce the financial implication. The official side discussed the issue on
several occasions but did not conclude with the result that these awards are
still pending acceptance of the Government.
It is rather unethical and untenable that the Government has chosen to
invoke the sovereign authority of the Parliament to deny the legitimate dues of
its own employees. Prior to 1998, the
Government has not chosen to approach the Parliament once the award is given in
favour of the employees and implemented every one of them except in a very few
cases. We urge that the concerned
Ministries may be advised to accept these awards and implement the same for
such a direction will bring in confidence and respect amongst the employees
over the Governmental actions.
Item No. 12. Vacate All Trade Union 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
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
Item No. 14 :Career progression:
For the
efficient functioning of an institution, the primary pre-requisite is to have a
contended workforce. It is not only the
emoluments, perks and privileges that motivate an employee to give his best.
They are no doubt important. But what is
more important is to provide them a systematic career progression. The present
system of career progression available in the All India Services and the
organised group A Civil services attracts large number of young, talented and
educated persons to compete in the All India Civil Service Examination. No different was the career progression
scheme available in the subordinate services in the past. Persons who were recruited to subordinate
services were able to climb to Managerial positions over a period of time. The situation underwent vast changes in the
last two decades. In most of the
Departments, stagnation has come to stay.
It takes decades to be promoted to the next higher grade in the
hierarchy. It was the recognition of the
lack of promotional avenue in the subordinate services that made the 5th CPC to recommend a time
bound two career progression
scheme. However, this has not gone to
address the inherent problem of de-motivation that has crept in due to the high
level of stagnation. In most of the
Departments, the exercise of cadre review which was considered important was
not carried out. Any attempt in this
regard was restricted to Group A services.
The discontent amongst the employees in the matter is of high magnitude
today. It is, therefore, necessary that
every Department is asked to undertake to bring about a cadre composition and
recruitment pattern in such a manner that an employee once recruited is to have
five hierarchical promotions in his career as is presently the position in the
All India Services and in the organised Group A services.
Item No.15: Scrap the New Pension Scheme
The defined
benefit scheme of pension was introduced replacing the then existing
contributory system decades back. . The Government decided to reconvert
the same into a contributory scheme on the specious plea that the outflow on
pension had been increasing year by year and is likely to cross the wage bill.
By making it contributory, the Government expenditure on this score is not
likely to get reduced for the next 36 years
because of the reason that as per the announced scheme, the Government
is to contribute the same amount to the fund as the employees contribute.
Coupled with this stipulation the Government is also duty bound to make payment
for the existing pensioners and for all Central Government employees who were
in service prior to 1.1.2004. The
contribution collected from the employees who are recruited after 1.1.2004 is
to be managed by a mutual fund operator for investment in the stock
market. It is the vagaries of the stock
market which will then determine the quantum of pension or in other words
annuity, which would not be cost indexed. Before the introduction of the
new scheme and the PFRDA bill, the Government had set up a committee under the
chairmanship of Shri Bhattacharya, the then Chief Secretary of the State of
Karnataka. The bill was unfortunately drafted and presented to the Parliament
disregarding even the recommendation of the said committee to the effect that
the Govt. should consider introducing a hybrid system by which the employees
will have either a defined benefit pension
or opt for a higher return
through stock exchange investments. Despite the non-passage of the bill
and the consequent absence of a valid law to support the Pension Regulatory
authority, the Govt. converted the existing pension scheme into a contributory
one through executive fiat and invested a percentage of the fund so generated
from the employees’ contribution in the Stock market. India
(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 USA USA Argentina
(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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