MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF JS(IC) WITH THE MEMBERS OF THE STAFF SIDE ON 19.02.2016

Minutes of the Meeting of Joint Secretary (IC) with the Members of the Staff-Side of the Standing Committee (National Council-JCM) held on 19.02.2016

 Meeting was held under the chairmanship of Joint Secretary (Implementation Cell), Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, with the Members of the StaffSide of the Standing Committee (National Council-JCM) on 19.2.2016 to discuss the issues raised by the National Joint Council of Action (NJCA) {Joint Consultative Machinery (JCM)} in their letter No. NJC/2015/7th CPC dt. 10.12.2015, addressed to the Cabinet Secretary, regarding their Charter of Demands on the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission.

 The Secretary, Staff-Side of the Standing Committee (National Council- JCM), who is the convener of the NJCA, along with other office bearers attended the meeting. The list of the participants from the Staff-Side is attached below. Welcoming the members of the Staff-Side, JS(IC) mentioned that the meeting has been convened to enable the Staff-Side to bring out their concerns on the recommendations of the 7th CPC in the light of the Charter of Demands made by them in the aforesaid letter of NJCA so that same could be examined in the Implementation Cell and submitted for consideration of the Empowered Committee of Secretaries. He informed the office bearers that before arriving at a decision, the ECoS would also hold separate discussions with the Staff Side. 

2. Commencing the discussions from the Side of the Members of the Staff-Side, Secretary, Staff-Side, Standing Committee (National Council-JCM), explained that they have already placed their Charter of Demands as per the letter of NJCA dated 10.12.2015. He mentioned that the reasons based on which these demands have been made have also been explained therein. He, however, highlighted that the Staff-Side is not at all happy with the recommendations of the 7th CPC and, in fact, no section of the employees is satisfied, as the Commission has recommended a minimal pay increase as compared to the previous Pay Commissions. He mentioned that the Staff-Side does not agree with the minimum pay of Rs. 18000 and the reason as to why the methodology adopted by the 7th CPC to arrive at this figure is not correct has been explained in their letter dated 10.12.2015. He stated that Staff-Side demands enhancement of the minimum pay to Rs. 26000 and the reasons in support of this have been given in their aforesaid letter. He further stated that an amicable and mutually negotiated settlement of these demands is necessary as non-acceptance would further cause resentment in the employees. He informed that Staff-Side has already made their stand clear to go on strike from 11th April, 2016 if their demands are not considered and no amicable settlement happens.

 3. Thereafter, the other members of the Staff-Side also expressed their arguments for acceptance of these demands and all of them emphasised that the minimum pay needs to be revised. Consequently, the fitment multiple of 2.57 would also need commensurate change. The leader of the Staff-Side explained that the office bearers who were present in the meeting represent various sections of Central Government employees including railways, defence civilians, postal employees etc., the number of which is around Rs. 32 lakhs.

 4. The Staff-Side brought out their concerns on all the 26 demands included in the Charter of Demands and all the points brought out by them in the letter of the NJAC dt. 10.12.2015 were reiterated. However, following issues in support of their demands were highlighted :-

 (i) Minimum Pay needs to be revised to Rs. 26000 p.m. and the minimum pay of Rs. 18000 p.m. as recommended by 7th CPC is not acceptable. This would require upward revision in the fitment multiple of 2.57 and change in the Pay Matrix. It was argued that if the 10% of the pay for NPS contribution and the recommended increase in the CGEIS contribution are taken into account, there would be a drop in the take-home salary of the employees at the minimum pay of Rs.18000.

 (ii) Central Government employees need to be excluded from the National Pension Scheme (NPS), which has been a long pending demand of the StaffSide. The Staff-Side stated that the Pension Fund which has been created under NPS to generate annuity for employees, would not ensure reasonable pension. Rather it is quite likely that it may generate negative returns because of the dismal performance of the financial market to which the fund is invested, leaving the employees without any reasonable social security benefit.

 (iii) The 7th CPC has recommended abolition of 52 allowances without properly appreciating the justification of these allowances. The example of break-down allowance in case of Railway employees was given, stating that this allowances is given so that the concerned employees take up the necessary follow up action in the case of breakdown on an urgent basis and therefore its withdrawal is not justified in operational interests of Railways.

 (iv) The withdrawal of advances, especially LTC, TA, Medical, National Calamity Advance, was not justified. It was argued that these advances are recovered from the employees and, therefore, the same should be retained. 

(v) In regard to enhancement of contribution under Group Insurance Scheme, it was argued that increase in the contribution from the employees was not justified and if the same is to be raised, the Government should bear the insurance premium.

 (vi) The post of LDC should be upgraded to UDC and as part of delayering, Grade Pays of Rs. 1900, Rs. 2400 and Rs. 4600 should be abolished and merged with the next higher Grades.

 (vii) The rate of increment needs to be raised from 3% to 5% because pay is revised in the Central Government after 10 years. It was mentioned that in the PSUs the pay is revised after 5 years and the rate of increment is also higher.

 (viii) Two increments in the feeder post may be granted as promotion benefit.

 (ix) Fixed medical allowance for pensioners who are not covered by CGHS and REHS needs to be increased from Rs. 500 p.m. to Rs. 2000 p.m. 

(x) The recommendation regarding grant of only 80% of salary for the second year of Child Care Leave need not be accepted and the existing provisions may be retained

 (xi) It was also demanded that though the D/o Expenditure has sought the comments of the Ministries/Department on the issues pertaining to them after consulting the Staff Associations, administrative Departments are not inviting the Staff associations for discussions.

 5. After detailed explanation by the Staff-Side on all the demands included in the Charter of Demands, JS(IC), while concluding the discussions, assured the Staff-Side that the concerns and demands made by them would be placed before the Empowered Committee of Secretaries for consideration after examining the same in the light of the recommendations of the Commission. He also mentioned that in cases where the comments of the administrative Ministries/ Departments would be necessary, e.g., the case of break-down allowance pertaining to Ministry of Railways, the same would be considered before the issues are placed before the E-CoS. As regards the issue raised that the administrative Departments are not inviting staff associations for discussions, JS(IC) mentioned that the Departments have to formulate the views keeping in view the representations made by the Staff Associations. 6. Thereafter, the meeting ended with thanks to the chair.

 *Annexure Members of the Staff side of the National Joint Council (JCM), who attended the meeting with JS (IC) held on 19.02.2016 -7th Central Pay Commission S.No Name (S/Shri) 1. Shiva Gopal Mishra 2. M.Raghavaiah 3. N.Kanniah 4. Guman Singh 5. K.K.N.Kutty 6. C.Srikumar 7. S.N.Pathak 8. Ashok Singh 9. R.N.Prashar 10. M.S. Raja 11. Giri Raj singh 12. Satish Chander 13. R.Srinivasan

NOTICE ISSUED BY DOPT FOR MEETING WITH EMPLOWERED COMMITTEE AND STANDING COMMITTEE MEMBERS OF NATIONAL COUNCIL (JCM)

National Federation of Atomic Energy Employees NFAEE DEPARTMENT OF ATOMIC ENERGY Regn.No.17/9615 Recognised by DAE vide DAE OM No. 8/1/2007 – IR&W/95 dated 13th June 2007 NFAEE Office, Opp. NIYAMAK BHAVAN, Anusaktinagar, Mumbai 400 094 Web site: www.nfaeehq.blogspot.com ; Email address: nfaee@yahoo.com

Ref. No: nfaee/sg/16/48                                                           17.02.2016

To

The Jt. Secretary (I&M) &

Nodal Officer for CPC

Department of Atomic Energy

Anushaktibhavan

CSM Marg, Mumbai 400001

Sub: views & suggestions on Department Specific Issues in 7^th CPC Report - Reg

Sir,

        At the outset on behalf of NFAEE I would like to express our sincere gratitude for holding a meeting with the representatives of NFAEE on 17^th February 2016 and discussing the issues in detail.

        As assured, a note contains the comments on following issue is annexed along with this letter.

• Overtime Allowance
• Over view of Allowance
• Qualification Incentive Scheme
• Update Allowance
• One increment to the employees retiring on 30^th June 2016
• GPF
• Gratuity

During the discussion, we overlooked the issue of Update Allowance for non-gazette employees to present in the meeting. Since the CPC has not given any specific recommendation on Upgradation of Update Allowance or even retain the same, specific recommendation should send as in the case we decided to submit on Qualification Incentive Scheme. Otherwise there will be a possibility to abolish the Update Allowance.

We would like to further bring to the notice of the Department that there is a correction in the note submitted to the Implementation cell.

As per the note in the subject Rationalization of Pay structure suggested the fixation factor as 3. Where as in the item No. 2 on Minimum Pay the Department suggested to increase the minimum pay in the Pay matrix to Rs 22000/- from the current proposal of Rs18,000/-. Thus the multiple factor become 22000/7000 = 3.14. Hence a correction may be incorporated  in place of 3 as 3.14.

NFAEE further would like to mention here that, there are few issues to be discuss parallely in the Department level. Some of the issues are given below:

• Upgradation of the Pay Scales of various categories of employees
• Promotion/Recruitment norms for various categories of employees
• Revisit of the entire scheme of the NRPSA to come out from the slab system
• Rate of Overtime Allowance based on the Bhabha Order for non - industrial units under DAE
• Administrative decision on exemption of considering medical leave for calculation of PRIS
• Extension of PRIS (I)to Administrative, Accounts, Auxiliary and Purchase & Store Staff, etc

Thanking you.

Yours faithfully,

 (Jayaraj KV)

Secretary General

Cc:    Secretary

DAE

Additional Secretary

DAE

Address for Correspondence: Jayaraj. KV, Secretary General, NFAEE

PESS/UED; BARC, Trombay, Mumbai 400 085

Tel. No: (O): 022 – 25596519; (Res): 022 – 25554179; (Mobile): 9869501189

Email Address: nfaee@yahoo.com, jrajkv@yahoo.com

Annexure

Overtime Allowance	8.17.89 – 97	Recommended to abolish OTA except for operational industrial employees who are governed by statutory provision Further recommended that in case Government decides to continue with OTA for the staff for which it is not a statutory requirement, then the rates of OTA should be increased by 50% from their current levels.	The recommendation of the Pay Commission to increase the OTA from the Current levels for those employees who are not covered by statutory provisions by 50% is against the law of equality and against the basic concept of the equal pay for equal work. More over even the increase recommended by the CPC is of the current level is not clarified, as there is not increase in OTA since 5th CPC. 505 hike as on the pay of 31.12.0215 or that of 31.12.1995 is not spelled out. The OTA for these sections of employees who are not covered by any statutory provisions are regulated by calculating their pay hypothetically based on the 4th CPC. The amount offered as OTA shall be much lesser than the eligible OTA. Overtime is the amount of hours of work put in excess to the normal working hours and has been a contesting topic between workers and management. The labour laws being welfare legislations are designed to discourage or prevent employers for compelling the employees to work beyond their normal working hours or work for excessively long hours. The respective legislation generally regulates overtime by paying the employee at a higher hourly rate for overtime work.  There are two categories of employees out of the purview of the industrial employees who covered the statutory provision. 1.    Though no statutory provisions are extended to these category of employees who all are working in the Round the Clock shift duty and compelled to continue their duty  for another shift to ensure the activities of the operational plant, laboratory, surveillance of the installations, ensuring transportation, etc as per the binding of the safety and security  provisions of such establishments. These employees are not allowed to relief from duty place, if their reliever has not turned up for duty. These category of employees are working in various Departments having their Research Units, Laboratories, etc in the Departments like, Atomic Energy, Space, DRDO and other Defence Laboratories, CSIR, etc., Postal Department, etc. After attaining 8 hours extra duty, these employees are now regulating OTA based on the pay as on 31.12.1995 which will be almost 1/8th of their pay which will be less than the minimum wages regulated by the Government for unskilled worker. An employee at the entry level having the Pay of Rs 7000 and DA @ 125% together will get a monthly salary of 15750 and his one day salary shall be Rs525/-. Even single rate OTA is provided the said employee if asked to continue to work after his normal 8 hours duty, he should get payment towards OTA as Rs525/- where as now he is offered just Rs80/- or nearby for his 8 hours extra work. As the jobs in those areas these employees are working cannot stop for want of employee as varies activities, in Research Plants, laboratories are continuing nature for 24X7 basis, the retaining of staff become compulsory and hence the revision of OTA is becoming mandatory in this category. 2.      The other section of employees in general are those who are provided the OTA as per the Staff Car Pattern as these subordinated staff related to senior officials to stay offer one or two hours till their superior leave from the office. In this case, if the department concern finds out ways and means to follow the time schedule the OTA will not arise. But if it is not possible, the employees are asking to overstay should be offered OTA based on the revised rate of OTA. Based on the above mentioned background, the offer of increase the OTA by 50%, even that of pay as on 31.12.2015 shall be violation of Article 14 and the concept of equal pay for equal work. OTA in DAE: The activities and nature of the employees in the R&D and other non industrial units are at par with the Industrial units under DAE where the OTA is regulated as per the Factories Act 1948. The employees in the R&D sector are forced to perform the Overtime because of the reliever system in the nuclear operating plants, Laboratories, etc. The Nuclear plant operators, Technicians/ Supervisors, Drivers, Security Staff, Fire Staff, Nursing Staff and other para medical Staff, etc. are forced to perform Overtime to ensure the continuous operation (24 X 7 in the round the clock) of the operating plats, laboratories, hospitals, electrical substations, pump house etc.,   This is to follow the safety and security guidelines to ensure proper safety and security to the Nuclear establishments, surroundings and the man power. Government of India promulgates Atomic Energy Factories Rules which is identical to the Factories Act 1948 and the same made applicable to the R& D and other non Industrial units under the Department of Atomic Energy. But always skipped while revising the Overtime Allowance for Industrial units after the implementation of the Pay revision based on the recommendations of Pay Commissions. Specific direction shall be issued by the Government as the OTA payment in DAE is regulated by a separate order issued in the year 1964 on par with the provisions in the Factories Act. As the Workers who are asked to perform their duty in the Round the Clock Shift to ensure the smooth and continuous operation of Nuclear Installations in the units like BARC, IGCAR, VECC, RRCAT, AMD and other supportive units are covered under the provisions of Atomic Energy Factories Rules 1996, OTA should be paid to this operative staff as it is statutory. Therefore Government should revise the rate of OTA based on the new pay structure for those employees who are not covered by statutory provisions are regulated and the rate of OTA prevails in the Department.
Overview of Allowances	8.2.5	Any Allowance not mentioned in the report shall cease to exist immediately. In case there is any demand or requirement for continuation of an existing allowance which has not been deliberated upon or covered in this report, it should be e – notified by the ministry concerned after obtaining due approval of Ministry of Finance and should be put in the public domain.	Government should not accept the recommendation of the Pay Commission mentioned in para 8.2.5 and modified as follows: Any Allowance not mentioned in the report shall be retained and the same shall be enhanced by 2.25 times, if the Allowance is not indexed with DA and if the Allowance is indexed with DA, the same shall be enhanced by 50%.
Qualification Incentive Scheme		The Pay Commission has not made and recommendation specifically to Qualification Incentive Scheme	The Qualification Incentive scheme (QIS) introduce the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) in its specific nuclear operating plants to ensure the safe operation, adopt higher safety measures, safe working procedure in  nuclear plants by adhering to IAEA/AERB/BSC standards. Every operational, maintenance persons in the nuclear plant shall be well trained, qualified and experienced to understand the intricacy of the safe operation and maintenance procedure of the nuclear plant. For that purpose this scheme was introduced through a meticulous qualification process of completing the check list, examination, interview etc. The employees are qualified in five different levels depending on their responsibility qualification and experience. Accordingly the incentives are also paid in five different levels. Since Qualification Incentive is not considered by the Pay Commission and not recommended any revision, the Qualification Incentive should be retained and enhance by increasing 2.25 times of the existing rate as the QIS is not indexed with DA.
Update Allowance		The Pay Commission has not made and recommendation specifically to Update Allowance	Update Allowance to Scientific Officer/Technical Officers below Grade Pay of Rs5400 and all Technical, Administrative, Purchase & Stores and Auxiliary category employees should be continued and should be enhanced by 50%.
One increment to the employees who retiring on 30th June		The Pay Commission has not made and recommendation specifically to extend one increment to those employee who retires on superannuation on 30th June 2016.	At present as the increment rate is on 31st July, the employee retiring on 30th June complete 12 months of service. Even then he/she is not entitled for one increment. As per the definition of the increment, the Government employee completed his 12 month service is entitled for annual increment. But in this case the employee even though completed the conditionality for increment is denied the benefit only because he retired on 30th June. Hence the employee retires on 30th June should give annual increment and the same should be considered all calculations. If the demand for annual increment on 1st January & 1st July is accepted by the Government, the annual increment should be given to those employees who retire on 31st December and 30th June.
GPF	9.4	Status quo maintained	One more option to the employees who are in CPF Scheme to switch over from CPF to GPF (Pension Scheme)
Gratuity:	10.1.34 - 37	Enhancement in the ceiling of gratuity from the existing Rs10 lakh to Rs20 lakh. The ceiling on gratuity may be raised by 25 percent whenever DA rises by 50 percent.	1.    Gratuity should not be restricted for 33 years and the full service period should be considered for calculating the Gratuity. 2.    Gratuity calculation to be on the basis of 26 days in the month against 30 days as per the Gratuity Act 1972. Quote: 2* (Explanation, -- In the case of a monthly rated employee, the fifteen days wages shall be calculated by dividing the monthly rate of wages last drawn by him by twenty – six and multiplying the quotient by fifteen). – Last Para from Page No. 10 of Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972. Copy of the Gratuity Act is attached.