Organizations of central government employees and pensioners have demanded increase in preparation factor and paid leave, among others, in the 8th Pay Commission. The organizations attended the meeting held between the National Council (staff side) and the Joint Consultative Mechanism (NC-JMC) on Wednesday.
The meeting held in Delhi on Wednesday discussed several issues, including employee promotions, increasing annual bonuses and restoring the old pension system.
What the employee bodies demanded
Manjeet Singh Patel, a person representing the Central Government Employees Union, told the Economic Times that some of the suggestions submitted to the Eighth Pay Commission include introducing a setup factor of 3.25, introducing semi-annual or annual increments of 7% instead of the current 3%, and increasing the number of family units taken into account for basic salary and setup factor calculations from three to five.
He also said that employees are pushing for raising the limit on encashment of leave upon retirement from 300 to 400 days and increasing the fixed medical allowance from 300 to 400 days. $1000 LBP $20,000 per month in areas where there is no CGHS hospital.
In addition, Patel also called for maintaining the pay gap between different levels of employees and setting up a simplified promotion policy across departments.
He said that employees are demanding better promotion policy as some employees are promoted within a few years and others do not get promotion even after 15 years.
Also Read: Center shares Pay Commission’s 8th update, provides details on basic pay-DA linkage
What happened at the meeting?
Following the meeting on Wednesday, C Sreekumar, general secretary of All India Defense Employees Federation, told Economic Times that the demands of employee associations, including defence, railways, postal etc, were discussed in the meeting.
Sreekumar was quoted as saying that the meeting aims to reach consensus on issues including basic minimum wages, promotion policies and annual increment among others.
He also informed that in the coming days, various associations will send their demands regarding eighth pay commission to the JCM.
Read also: In the 8th Pay Commission, the government shares key details in Parliament: when it will come into force, and more
In a post on X, Dr Manjeet Singh Patel, who represents the Central Government Employees Union, wrote in a post on “The final cast will likely be prepared within the next 10 days,” his post read.
At the same time, he also said that the issues of personnel working in federal territories and central autonomous bodies would likely not receive any attention since the JCM had no requirement to represent these two groups.
