Fix minimum wage with provisions of indexation – Item No.5 Charter of Demands
Item No.5.
Fix minimum wage with provisions of indexation.
(i) Effect wage revision of the Central Government Employees from
01.01.2014 accepting memorandum of the staff side JCM; ensure 5-year
wage revision in future; grant interim relief and merger of 100% of DA;
Include Gramin Dak Sevaks within the ambit of 7th CPC. Settle all
anomalies of 6th CPC.
The 7th CPC was set up in 2013 by the then Government consequent upon
the continuous struggles undertaken by the Central Government under the
leadership of the Confederation of Central Government employees and
workers. Under its banner various struggles were carried out
from December, 2010 till the announcement of the setting up of the 7th
CPC. During this period, the Confederation organized one day strike on
12th December, 2012 and again two day strike action on12th and 13th
February, 2014. As per the terms of reference, the Commission is to
submit its report within 18 months. If they abide by the stipulated time
frame, its report must be available by the end of August, 2015. In this
context, the formulation made before the Commission untidily by all
organizations of the Central Government, especially those participating
in the National negotiating forum of JCM is worth reproducing.
All previous Pay Commissions were of the opinion that wages cannot be
determined on any single principle but has to be based upon a
combination of all the enunciated principles or those principles are to
be factored into the process of quantification. Since the Government as
an employer had not been able to grant the need based minimum wage to
its own employees till date we are of the opinion that the 7th CPC must
endeavour to compute the wage structure on 15th ILC norms. We suggested
two other principles to be factored in to the quantification of
pay beyond the minimum level.
We enumerate hereunder the factors to be taken into account:
1) The Need-Based Minimum Wage concept to compute pay at the minimum level.
2) The intrinsic value of the job content of each grade and post at
the intermediary level to be assessed by an expert committee. Pending
finalization of such a study, the Commission may maintain the presently
existing vertical and horizontal relativities.
3) To take into account the outside rates to determine the pay
package at senior levels of bureaucracy but maintain the ratio between
the minimum and maximum at 1 : 8 (MTS: Secretary to Govt. of India).
We make the above suggestion, being just and reasonable on the following grounds:
1. The Fair Wage Committee has held that an industry which is incapable of paying minimum wage has no justify to exist.
2. 86% of Central Government Employees are industrial or operational workers.
3. The need based minimum wage concept formulated by Dr. Aykhroyd and
approved by 15 ILC was considered the most important principle in
computing salary of Government employment especially of those lower
level functionaries, by the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th CPC.
4. It is only the fear of a heavy financial implication and the
incapacity of the Indian economy at the relevant point of time, to meet
the extra expenses the 2nd, 3rd and 4th CPCs were constrained to alter
the formula itself with the opinion of certain nutritional experts.
The legitimacy provided to Dr. Aykhroyd formula by the 15th ILC (in
which the representative of Labour, Employers and Government
participated) was not available for any other conceptual frame work
proposed by any other “experts”. The 4th Pay Commission cited the per
capita net national product increase over the years to justify lower
minimum wage than what could have been as per the ILC norms. It could be
seen that the earlier Pay Commissions had adopted a different principle
other than the Dr. Aykhroyd formula due to financial constraints.
5. Despite elaborately detailing the concept of living wage and the
amendment to the preamble of the Indian Constitution, the 4th CPC stated
that the per capita net national income increase if factored would not
allow them to fix the minimum wage at a higher level than Rs.750/-.
6. Even though no specific reference on the adoption of the concept
of need based minimum wage was made by the Government, the 5th CPC did
dwell upon it. They advocated that the 25% addition suggested by the
Supreme Court to enable the worker to meet the expenses, viz., children
education, medical requirements, social obligation connected with
festivals, marriages, etc. must be added to arrive at the minimum wage.
However, they computed the minimum wage discarding the same principle
but made the percentage increase of the per capita net national product
over a period of ten years as the base (or the constant relative income
criterion as the most equitable norm). In order to arrive at the
minimum pay, the Commission added 30.9% over the emoluments of a lowest
paid employee as on 1.1.1996.
7. The 6th CPC adopted the 15th ILC norms to compute the minimum wage
but made several changes to the concept Viz., the retail prices of the
commodities, which goes into the reckoning was altered; the stipulated
10% for housing and 25% for social obligations, medical, children
education, etc. were discarded on the plea that separate allowances
had been granted. Dr. Aykhroyd had factored 7.5% as housing component in
the computation of minimum wage. The question of incorporating the cost
of requirement for medical, education and other social obligation was
the subject matter of litigation before the Supreme Court. The Hon’ble
Court directed that 25% of the minimum wage so computed must be added as
a factor for the above requirement of a worker, which had not been
taken into account by the ILC norms.
The contention of the 6th CPC that since children education
allowance, Medical and house rent allowances are specially granted to
the Central Govt. employees, the same must be taken out of the reckoning
is not only wrong but also amounts to contradiction of a stand taken by
the Highest judiciary of the country- Supreme Court. The 6th CPC has
failed to take note of the fact that the allowances, be it HRA, Children
Education allowance or Medial, granted are awfully insufficient to meet
the requisite expenses. Had it not been the case, the 3rd CPC also
ought to have taken the similar stand adopted by the 6th CPC.
The computation appearing in page No. 60, Chapter 6 (3rd CPC report)
establishes our view in the matter.
We have given in Table (.5.1..) the computation of minimum wage as
per 15th ILC norms. The retail prices of the commodities/articles are
the average of the retail prices ruling as on 1.1.2011 at the following
cities:
1. New Delhi,2 Mumbai, 3. Chennai, 4. Kolkata, 5 Hyderabad, 6. Bhubaneswar, 7. Thiruvananthapuram, 8. Bangalore.
The minimum wage as per our computation works out to Rs.20,856/-.
This must be the minimum wage for the unskilled worker as per the ILC
norms. In Central Government employment presently there is no unskilled
labour. The lowest level of employment is multiskilled worker/employees.
The minimum educational qualification prescribed is either ITI
or matriculation (10th Standard). The percentage increase of the wages
of a skilled worker to that of an unskilled worker on an average had
been more than 25% all throughout. We have therefore added 25% to arrive
at the minimum pay for the lowest employee in Government service, which
comes to Rs. 26,071/- , i.e. Rs. 26,000/- when rounded off.
Incidentally, we may mention that the minimum wages at the level of
an unskilled worker as per recent wage agreement in Coal India Ltd. Is
Rs.29697/-. The per-capita Net National Product increase at factor cost
between – (2004-05 – 2011-12) years as per the Economic Survey
for 2012-13 presented to Parliament is 57.55..%. This, if applied to the
present wage at the lowest level shall work out to Rs.22857/-. For the
reasons stated in the preceding paragraphs and more specifically for the
reason that the Government has presently the capacity to pay as
detailed in this memorandum, we request the 7th CPC to recommend the
minimum pay to be assigned to the lowest level of Group C functionary in
Government of India service at Rs. 26,000/-.
Another important issue, we took with the Government was the
inclusion of the Grameen Dak Sewaks of the Postal Department within the
ambit of the consideration of the 7th CPC. The Government did
not concede our demand. The Postal Department had been objecting to this
demand consistently on the plea that the Grameen Dak Sewaks were not
civil servants. They had, therefore, resorted to setting up separate
committees to consider the service conditions and wage rise of the Extra
Departmental Agents, or Grameen Dak Sewaks. It must be stated with some
satisfaction that during the negotiation that took place with the
organizations of the Postal employees on the eve of the commencement of
the indefinite strike action, the Postal Department had to agree to
recommend the acceptance of this demand to the Government, though
belatedly.
Despite the said belated suggestion made by the Postal
authorities, there had been no positive response from the Government of
India till date with the result the GDS, a significant segment of the
Postal Department will be denied the wage revision along with the
other Central Government employees, if immediate steps are not taken by
the Government to ask the Commission to consider their case within a
stipulated time. We give hereunder the reasons we have advanced for
inclusion of GDS within the purview of the 7th CPC.
Grameen Dak Sewaks constitutes the single largest chunk of the postal
workforce. Without them perhaps the rural postal system in the country
will break down. The dedicated service of the Grameen Dak Sewaks keeps
the postal department operational throughout the year.The system of
Extra Departmental Agency was introduced by the colonial British rulers
to reduce the running expenses of the postal system in the country. The
exploitative system continued even after independence. By excluding the
Gramin Dak Sewaks from the purview of inquiry of the Pay Commission, the
Government wanted the system to continue as a means to reduce the
running expenses of the Postal Department. The exclusion is sought to be
made on the specious plea that the GDS are not Civil Servants.
The Government’s contention on this score had been the subject matter
of judicial scrutiny. The Honourable Supreme Court has held that the
Extra Departmental Agents are holders of Civil post. The 4th Central Pay
Commission also held the same view and asserted that their service
conditions must be inquired into by the Pay Commission. However, when
the 5th CPC is constituted, Government set up a Committee under Justice
Talwar to look into their case. The Government did not implement many of
the recommendations of the Talwar Committee. It is in this context we
plead that the Gramin Dak Sewaks must be brought within the purview of
the 7th Central Pay Commission and justice rendered to them.
Source: Confederation
