7th Pay Commission – Advantages to Government or Employees?
The Central Government employees are scheduled to get salary hikes
on the basis of the recommendations by January 1, 2016. According to
sources, the house rent allowance too would see an increase by 20 per
cent. But the most significant recommendation is that 5 to 6 per cent of
the annual increment would be performance-based. There is also likely
to be a provision of retiring under-performing employees by the age of
55 or 30 years of service, whichever is more.
The Finance ministry has already opened its stand saying, the
Seventh Pay Commission will be mindful of the fiscal concerns of the
government while giving its report on new pay scales and remunerations
for central government employees and pensioners.
So the question which arises in everybody’s mind is, for whom the
7th Pay Commission is for? Is it for the Central Government employees or
for the Government? For Whose benefit is it working?
For example there is a rumour floating around that the CGHS
facility is going to take its last breath after 7th CPC. The Seventh Pay
commission is planning to propose health insurance scheme to replace
Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) at highly subsidized rates.
The pay panel will ask the central government to urge the insurance
industry to come up with feasible health insurance solution for the
central government employees and pensioners. The IRDA, the insurance
regulatory body of India, will be compelled to ask the health insurance
companies to offer a basic insurance to every central government
employee and pensioner, regardless of age or medical condition and will
not be allowed to make a profit of this basic insurance.
Health insurance would be available for central government
employees and pensioners till death, the insured employees and
pensioners will have to pay 50% of the premium from their salaries and
pensions and the remaining 50% premium may be paid by the central
government.
The CGHS is financed mainly through the Centre’s tax revenues.
Though beneficiaries do contribute a share of their wages towards
premium, ranging from Rs 600 to Rs 6,000 a year depending on their pay
scale, this accounts for just about 5 per cent of the total expenditure.
The government shells out the remaining 95 per cent.
However, now the Government is looking for ways to end the CGHS in
its current form and to move to an insurance based health scheme to cut
costs.
Recently, the CG Employee’s Welfare Ministry released an
announcement which has created confusion and fury among the CG
employees.
In the announcement it has been said that the senior officials have
to analyse the service record and decide whether employees who have
completed thirty years of service or reached their 50th year should
continue their service or be advised to leave service after three months
notice.
Does it take a management to learn that an official or an employee
is unfit to continue in service when he has reached his 50th year? Does
it take thirty years of continuous service to assess the efficiency of
an employee?
Then what is the need for a probation period? After serving the
Government for 30 years or till his 50th year, if somebody is asked to
quit just like that, giving some damn reason when he is old, appears
rather inhumane.
Unlike in the private sector, the pay hike in government is a
once-in-10-years-affair. The Government need not and should not compare
the Government employees with the private sector. The private sector
works on profit mode, but the government organisations work in the
service mode.
The NJCA at the Meeting of the Confederation held at Hyderabad on
09th October 2015 while endorsing the decision of the National Joint
Council of Action (Railway, Defence & Confederation) to organize
massive protest dharna at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi on 19th November 2015
and also Nationwide Protest Demonstration in front of all works spot
& offices, has decided to further intensify the protest action
against the negative attitude of the Government for the Unwarranted
intervention of the Finance Ministry in the independent functioning of
the Pay Commission by issuing a statement asking the 7th CPC to factor
into its report the fiscal concern of the government and thereby to
pressurize the commission not to recommend wage rise on the basis of a
sound and scientific formulation and Causing engineered delay by the
Government in the submission of 7th CPC report by granting four months
extension upto 31st December 2015, even when the Pay Commission was
ready to submit its report within the stipulated time i.e. 28th August
2015.
Source :
GConnect.in
