Central Secretariat employees seek pay parity

Central Secretariat employees seek pay parity

A delegation of the Central Secretariat Stenographers' Service (CSSS) Association, called on the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh here today and sought his intervention for parity in pay fixation and related issues.

The delegation led by Shri Raj Kishore Singh submitted a memorandum listing details of their long pending issues and suggesting options to resolve the same. According to the memorandum, while applying Rule 8 of CCS (RP) Rules 2008, the pay of direct recruits and new entrants is fixed at higher stage, when compared to the existing employees who were promoted in the same grade. This leads to discrimination in the fixation of pay of Personal Assistants of one category vis-à-vis the other category.

The memorandum also stated that the issue has been lingering on in the National Anomaly Committee for the last four years, but it has not been addressed. It pleaded that the mechanism of grant of “stepping up” to certain employees should be provided only in exceptional cases and not resorted to as a routine matter to sort out discrepancies which may affect a large number of employees.

Members of the delegation suggested that their issue can be addressed by incorporating a new provision in the Rules wherein if a promotee’s pay is getting fixed at a stage lower than that of a direct recruit, then the pay of the promotee should be fixed at the same stage as that of a direct recruit / new entrant. The other option suggested by them was to amend the CCS (RP) Rules so as to appropriately fix the pay in the Pay Band for a particular post carrying a specific Grade Pay.

Dr Jitendra Singh gave a sympathetic hearing to the members of delegation and assured them that DoPT will try to sort out their issue to the maximum extent possible.

PIB