Hefty pay hike for govt staff
George Iype in New Delhi
Buckling under pressure from the Left parties, the Union government has virtually accepted all the demands of the employees unions and agreed to revise some of the Fifth Pay Commission's major recommendations.
The agreement, which was thrashed out by a group of Union ministers and the
Joint Consultative Machinery of central government employees unions after protracted negotiations early on Thursday morning, was formally signed later in the day by Personnel Secretary Arvind Verma and JCM secretary Umraomal P Purohit.
Acclaiming the agreement as a major victory, the JCM has called off the indefinite nationwide strike from September 24.
According to the agreement, the employees pay will be fixed in the new scales recommended by the Fifth Pay Commission after adding 40 per cent of the existing basic pay to the emoluments drawn on January 1, 1996, which includes basic pay, dearness allowance and two interim reliefs. The employees will also be paid arrears in cash from January 1, 1996.
These alone will increase the Centre's burden by at least Rs 45 billion, according to finance ministry officials.
Besides, all group 'C' and 'D' staff as well as non-gazetted group 'B' officers will get bonus for the current year without any eligibility ceiling.
The government also agreed to enhance the annual increments and offer a higher basic pay for group 'C' and 'D' staff.
The Centre has promised to consider the employees's demand for higher house rent allowance later, JCM secretary Purohit told Rediff On The NeT.
"We are happy that the government has conceded some of our genuine demands," he said.
Alleging that the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations were "highly discriminatory towards the lower class government staff", Purohit said the crux of the problem was that these "recommendations were made by the IAS officers for the IAS officers".
While the employees unions are in an upbeat mood, the new agreement will considerably strain the expenditure calculations of Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram.
A senior finance ministry official said that part of the problem stemmed from the proximity of Railway Minister Ram Vilas Paswan and Home Minister Indrajit Gupta, who negotiated with the JCM, to the trade unions.
Besides Paswan and Gupta, leaders like Arjun Singh (Congress), Sharad Yadav (Janata Dal), Harkishen Singh Surjeet (CPI-M) and Madan Lal Khurana (BJP) attended the employees's protest rally on September 4.
What added to the gravity of the situation was the tough stand taken by the Left parties led by Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Surjeet.
Sources said Surjeet met Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral and Chidambaram on Wednesday and virtually ordered them to agree to the employees's demands.
Paswan, whose political agenda is social justice and is the biggest employer in the country as the railway minister, also pressurised the prime minister and finance minister to accept the employees's demands.
"It was politics that helped the employees win their demands," one bureaucrat told Rediff On The NeT.
Delhi School of Economics Director Suresh Tendulkar -- the sole dissenting voice on the Fifth Pay Commission -- agreed. The agreement is driven by ''politics and not sound economics," he said.
"No political party wanted to antagonise the employees unions. That is why the government has accepted their demands knowing that it has to foot a huge wage bill," Professor Tendulkar told Rediff On The NeT.
Describing the demands of the government employees as "completely unjustified," he said it was highly "unethical on the part of the ministers to attend the rally and add to the charged feelings of the unions".
Professor Tendulkar said it was a curious situation where the government and the unions, formally pitted against each other on the issue, were on the same side of the bargaining table.
But Communist Party of India leader D Raja said the Left parties opposed the Commission's recommendations as they were "wrong and discriminatory".
"Our only worry was that while lower grade employees got a raw deal, IAS officers got unimaginable hikes," he told Rediff On The NeT.
While the arguments for and against the employees's rights go on, the finance ministry is not sure how it will mobilise Rs 185 billion this year (other years it be Rs 124 billion) to pay the new wage bill -- an uphill task in these trying times.
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