New Delhi: An employee association has urged the Center to restructure the Joint Consultative Mechanism, a platform for dialogue between the government and its employees, to make it more representative of the current administrative reality.
The All India National Union of Public Service Employees, an umbrella body that claims to have the support of over 13,000 government employees in central government departments, state governments, union territories and other organisations, has sent a letter to Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh in support of the application.
In the letter, AINPSEF National President Manjeet Singh Patel said the current JCM representation structure was designed in the 1960s, when the Government of India functioned through approximately 35-45 ministries and a relatively limited administrative framework.
However, he said that the center now operates through more than 50 ministries along with several autonomous departments and institutions, educational institutions, research organizations, technical bodies and federal territory administrations.
“Despite this significant expansion, the representative structure of the JCM largely continues within the historical framework of 1966,” he said.
As a result, many centrally governed ministries, sectors and administrative ecologies either receive grossly inadequate representation or none at all within the current JCC structure, Patel said.
“AINPSEF requests the government to consider expansion/restructuring of the JCM structure as per the reality of current governance and administrative expansion,” he said in the letter addressed to both Singh and Cabinet Secretary T V Somanathan. The Cabinet Secretary chairs JCM meetings.
The association urged the government to consider rotating appointments of staff representatives by staff to ensure broader representation.
“Ministries/departments that currently lack representation could gain institutional participation under the JCM. A ‘Representation Caucus of the Federal Territories Employees’ Union’ could be established within the JCM staff side.
“At least four representatives from unions/unions of Union Territory employees may be included under the JCM,” the letter said.
Accordingly, the structure of the JCM Staff Side Standing Committee will be expanded and rationalized in accordance with the current administrative reality and diversification of the workforce, Patil said in the letter.
“This appeal is not just a request for additional representation, but a constructive proposal towards strengthening participatory governance, consultative governance, institutional coordination and ease of governance in Bharat,” he said.
Patel said administrative modernization must be accompanied by consultative inclusion so that all key sectors that are largely subject to central administrative frameworks can have fair and meaningful participation within institutional dialogue mechanisms.
“We sincerely hope that the Government of India will look favorably on this important governance reform in the larger interest of democratic consultation, administrative efficiency and modern institutional coordination by ensuring expansion of the JCM to ensure representation of employees from larger organizations/UTs which currently remain unrepresented,” he added.
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