To
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 at least the
minimum of the salary, which are paid to the similarly placed regular employees
on the basis of equal pay for equal work.
Item No. 8(b). Absorption of GDS as regular postal
employees
The postal
Department employs the largest number of Government employees, next to Railways
and Defence. Nearly half of its
workforce is called the Grameen Dak Sewaks, the new nomenclature given for the
Extra Departmental Agents. The system of
EDAs was evolved by the British Colonial Government to sustain a postal system
at a cheaper cost especially in rural areas.
Despite the enactment of very many legislation to prohibit the
exploitation of workers, the Government continued with this system. No doubt in the post independent era, at the
instance and persuasion of the Unions of regular employees, certain benefits
were accorded to them. Till 1963, the GDS or the Extra Departmental Agents were
treated as Government employees and were covered by the service conditions
applicable to civil servants. However,
the Department of Post reversed this position thereafter and contended that
they are not Central Government employees. The Honourable Supreme Court in 1977
declared that they are holders of Civil Posts.
Justice Talwar Committee appointed by the Govt. To look into the issues
pertaining to GDS declared that the GDS are holders of Civil posts and all
benefits similar to regular employees must be extended to them. However, the Government did not accept this
recommendation of the committee which they themselves set up. On the specific
suggestion of the Postal Department, the Government set up a separate Committee
called the Natarajamurthy Committee to go into their service conditions and
suggest improvement on the lines of the recommendations of the 6th CPC. The recommendations of this Committee were
totally disappointing and the GDS in the post 6th CPC era is worse of. Instead
of utilising the service of GDS for the welfare schemes of the State in rural area
by converting them as regular employees, the Department caused injustice to
them by acting upon the recommendations of the Natarajamurthy Committee. Recently,
the Postal Department has decided that the vacancies in the Cadre of
Postmen, and MTS would not be fully made available for promotion to the GDS and
an element of open direct recruitment has been introduced. This has decelerated the 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.
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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