To
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.
The Honourable Prime Minister,
Government of India,
South
Block,
New Delhi. 110001
Dear Sir,
More than 15,000 Central Govt. Employees from all over
the country representing various affiliates of the Confederation of Central
Government employees and workers have marched to Parliament today to present this Memorandum containing a brief note on
the 14 point Charter of demands and seek your kind intervention in finding a settlement
of these issues. The employees and workers in all Departments of the Government
of India are distressed over the total breakdown of the negotiating machinery.
i.e. JCM . The Council
meetings are not being held in any Ministry other than Railways, Defence and to
a limited extent in the Postal and Atomic Energy Departments. There is no
channel of communication that exist between the employees and the heads of
Departments with the result that none of their grievances are attended to or
addressed. This apart, in
quite a number of Departments, the Associations /Federations have not been
granted recognition in- spite of fulfilling all the conditions stipulated under
the CCS (RSA) Rules, 1993 with the result even bilateral discussions at the
level of heads of offices have been dispensed with.
We, therefore, once again request your good-self
to kindly give necessary direction to the concerned that the issues we have
presented through this memorandum are addressed immediately.
Thanking
you,
Yours faithfully,
K.K.N. Kutty
Secretary General
BRIEF NOTE ON 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 5thCentral 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 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
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, 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 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 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.
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