12.12.12. STRIKE COM S.K.VYAS WRITES
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING FOR
REVISION OF WAGE STRUCTURE AND OTHER DEMANDS
The Confederation of Central Government Employees
and Workers have submitted a 15-point Charter of Demands to the Government of
India through a mass deputation on 26-07-12 in which more than 20 thousand
Central Government employees from all over the country had joined in the march
to Parliament in support of this Charter. The Confederation of Central
Government Employees and Workers is organizing a country wide campaign by
holding meetings / District and State level Conventions etc. to prepare the
employees for a strike action on 12-12-2012.
Why should we wait for ten
years for wage revision?
The revision of the
existing wage structure by appointing 7 CPC effective from 01-01-2011 is the
most pressing and urgent demand. There are four major considerations on which
this demand has been made. In the first place wage revision in all the Public
Sector Undertakings and in other Sectors usually takes place every 5th year.
The next revision in the Public Sector Undertakings is due from 01-01-2012, the
last being w.e.f.01-01-2007. Why should Central Government employees have to
wait for a longer period of 10 years before the next revision becomes due? It
is on this consideration that the Confederation of Central Government Employees
and Workers has demanded the setting up of 7th Central Pay Commission
immediately to revise the wage structure w.e.f. 01-01-2011.
The existing wage
structure revised by 6th CPC and which has been implemented from 01-01-2006 is
not only most anomalous, but also totally irrational and inadequate. It is
anomalous because by giving a system of wage band and Grade Pay and grouping
together some of the time scales, what has actually been done is that, the
highest minimum pay in the group which is also the minimum of the other pay
scales in the group, has been reduced to the revised minimum of the lowest pay
scale resulting in a very anomalous situation that a person promoted to any
post in the group is fixed below the deemed minimum of that post.
There is no scientific
determination of fitment benefit. Normally fitment benefit is equal to the
amount which is equal to the difference between the revised and pre-revised
minimum and is expressed in terms of percentage of pre-revised minimum. What
this CPC has done is that they have given 40% of pre-revised maximum as Grade
Pay / fitment benefit. This system of fitment benefit is not a uniform benefit,
for one who is at the minimum or lower stage will get a higher benefit and one
who is at the higher stage in the pre-revised pay scale will get lesser
benefit. It can’t be called a fitment benefit, as it is not related to the
difference between the revised and pre-revised minimum.
The Pay Band is in fact
nothing but pay plus DA which was admissible in the lowest pay scale in the
band and which has been made applicable for all the pay scales in that band.
The only increase which has been provided is represented by the Grade Pay i.e.
40% of pre-revised maximum. This increase as per the computation done will be
subsumed by way of difference in the DA increases by the end of the year 2012.
In other words, from 01-01-2013 the employees will begin to get lesser Pay and
Allowances than what they would have got in terms of 5th CPC wage structure.
Therefore, the increase
provided as a result of revision of 6th CPC is quite inadequate and another
revision has become due. The existing wage structure is irrational because it
is not based upon any principle of wage determination like need based minimum
norms or fair comparison with outside rates, which is universally applicable in
all the other countries of the world. We want that our wage structure should be
on the basis of scientifically devised principles of wage revision. Another
principle of wage determination is that a revised minimum is fixed at the level
of unskilled worker and other pay scales in the pyramid of the Pay Scales are
determined, keeping in view the well established and evolved vertical and
horizontal relativities. The wage structure given by 6th CPC has totally
smashed the existing relativities.
The lowest minimum wage
has not been fixed for unskilled worker. It has been fixed at the level of
skilled worker, who is a matriculate. The result is that all unskilled workers
who have not acquired matriculation have been debarred from the Govt.
employment. Such a wage structure is not acceptable to the people of India
because large number of rural youth who do not acquire the matriculation are
languishing in the employment market. But they have no opportunity in the
Government Sector because of this recommendation. The existing relativity
between unskilled and skilled worker was 50% at the level of the skilled
worker, the minimum of the unskilled worker being Rs. 2550 and that of skilled
worker being Rs.3050. In the existing arrangement the relativity is represented
by Grade Pay which is Rs.1800 at the minimum level and Rs.1900 at the next
level.
That means the vertical
relativity is reduced to 20% from existing 50%. General recommendation
regarding Pay Band is that it should be 1.86 multiple of the existing
pre-revised minimum so that it represents the existing Pay and Allowances as
admissible on 01-01-2006. The Government of India however, has given higher
multiple of three times of pre-revised minimum in PB 4 without offering any
explanation for this unrelated increase. The demand of the employees that at
least 2.625 times of the existing wages may be uniformly provided, if not three
times, which has not been accepted by the Government. If this has been accepted
every Government employee would have been granted 41% increase in their
pre-revised wages uniformly.
The 5th CPC has revised
the entire wage structure by applying a common multiple of 3.25. A Class IV
employee whose minimum was Rs.750 therefore, got Rs. 2550 and Cabinet
Secretary, whose pay was Rs.9000 was revised to Rs.30000. Such a common
multiplying factor has not been provided by the 6CPC. Therefore, it has recommended
a wage structure which gives inflated benefit to Class I Officer and very
reduced and inadequate benefit to the rest of the employees. These are the
reasons on which the employees have to be granted another wage increase through
the 7th CPC w.e.f 01-01-2011.
The 6th CPC bid good-bye to
the concept of merger of DA
Next important demand in
the Charter is merger of 50% of DA as Dearness Pay. If we go through the effort
put in by the CG employees movement for achieving this demand we will find that
way back in 1962, when the 2nd CPC had not given any formula for DA and
Government had imposed a very retrograde DA formula by not providing 100%
neutralization, the Confederation has raised a demand for indexing of the wages
annually as is being done in other countries like Great Britain etc. The Gadgil Committee appointed by the
Government recommended for the merger of total DA with Pay for the purposes of
pension. Third CPC, then recommended that, as soon as the Cost of living Index
crosses 272 points , the DA then admissible should be merged with pay for the
purpose of pension.
Later on, the employees’
organizations further negotiated and obtained merger of DA up to 320 points,
not only for the purpose of Pension but also, for the purpose of Pay and Allowances.
The next merger of DA up to 468 points (148% DA ) was done by Government before
appointing the 4th CPC. Employees Organizations then demanded that the system
of merger should be regulated and should happen automatically as and when the
DA increased by 50%.
To achieve this demand
and other demands, like setting up of 5th CPC, grant of IR, increasing the
bonus ceiling etc, entire Central Government employees represented by
Confederation, AIRF and AIDEF had to join together and gave a call for indefinite
strike. The Govt. then negotiated a settlement by merging 20% DA and referring
the rest of DA merger to the 5th CPC and conceding all other demands. The 5th
CPC merged 98% DA which was then admissible and recommended that as and when
the DA increase of 50% takes place, it should be merged with the Pay.
Thus we had achieved a
well regulated merger of DA with pay as and when it is increased by 50%. The
6th CPC has undone this achievement; rather it snatched away this benefit from
our hands, for reasons which are totally absurd. Therefore, we cannot but
insist for continuation of the system of merger which has recommended by the
5th CPC and accepted by the Government. No Movement will tolerate if the
already achieved benefit is taken away from it. Hence, we press for this
demand.
Our fate tied to the
vagaries of Stock Market
Another important demand
is withdrawal of PFRDA bill and restoration of the statutory pension scheme to
all the employees who entered the service on or after 01-01-2004. For the
present, the new contributory pension scheme, which is a defined contribution
as opposed to defined pension benefit scheme, has been introduced in respect of
the employees who joined service on or after 01-01-2004. At the first place,
pension is the liability of the Government.
The Supreme Court of
India ruled that a pension has been earned by an employee while he is serving
and therefore is in the nature of deferred wage which can be claimed by an
employee by way of Fundamental Right to Property. By a convention of ILO every
employer is bound to provide an appropriate fund to finance the social security
to an employee after his retirement. Some employers provide it through
Contributory Provident Fund, which consists of one month wage each year to be
funded by the employer. Some have a system of monthly payments after retirement
instead of one time lump sum payment.
In both cases, the
benefit is well defined, whether it is in the nature of pension or contributory
Provident Fund. And it is the liability of the employer/Government. In the NPS
what is defined is not the benefit but the amount which will be contributed by
the employee.
According to this
scheme, the fund contributed by the employee with matching contribution by the
Government will be invested in the Equity Market. If the wealth, thus
accumulated is enough, 40% of this will be invested in annuity, when the
employee quits the service. And his pension will be what that annuity provides.
It cannot therefore be a defined benefit, namely 50% of last pay drawn. In most
of the cases, the return is much less than 50% of last pay drawn. The benefit
given by such schemes which are in operation elsewhere, on an average, not
exceeded 20% to 30% of last pay drawn. In USA there were several such funds
operated not only by various States of US but also by many big companies.
As a result of the
recession in the year 2008 in USA, many big companies declared bankrupt with
the result that about more than 3.5 trillion dollars of pension wealth was
wiped out. The workers not only lost their pension but also their
employment. Besides this, such a scheme
is needed only in countries where major portion of the population is too old to
earn. So far as India is concerned, it is a country in which, the youth capable
of earning are more than 70%. And therefore, such a scheme is not at all
warranted. Various experts have undertaken projections of the pension liability
in coming years.
They have found that
excepting periodical escalation caused as a result of wage revision, the pension
liability in the Government Sector tends to be below 1% of GDP, which the
country can well afford. On this ground also, this NPS is uncalled for and has
to be rescinded. In PFRDA Bill a
provision has been made empowering the Government/Authority to extend the
operation of this scheme to all workers who are presently exempted, like those who are in service prior
to 01-01-04 and Defence personnel. Thus, the danger of they being also sucked
into this scheme is always there. The Authority has also been empowered to
alter the Scheme of the Statutory
Pension in order to
bring it at par with the NPS. And therefore, we have to fight for withdrawal of
PFRDA bill. We have to continue this fight even if this law is enacted and
persist in struggle till such time this law is repealed. So this demand is
going to survive even after a settlement is reached on other demands.
Denying Right to Strike is
attacking our Collective Bargaining power
Collective bargaining
right i.e. Right to Strike is one of the fundamental rights which have been
recognized by the ILO in its various Conventions like 85, 98 & 115. It is
understood that the imperialist Government of Britain, when they were Rulers of
this country did not bestow this right to the labour employed by them because
they treated them as slaves. But Independent India cannot deny us this right ,
which is being enjoyed by other workers. Because, by denying this right to us
(Public Servants), the Government is practicing discrimination which is
unconstitutional. We claim this Right as a Right flowing from the principle of
rights to all Citizens. It is another thing that we will continue to exercise
this right as and when needed.
And we are not beggars
before the Government for bestowing this right. Here it will be apt to mention
that even Sri. Jagjivan Ram in the year 1966 while addressing the inaugural
meeting of the National Council of JCM had advocated that the Central
Government employees should have the Right to Strike, because if, it is not there, the Government as an employer
will also not respect the employees Organizations and not address their
aspirations. Therefore we demand that all the collective bargaining rights
including Right to Strike should be bestowed to the employees.
Compassionate Appointment is
a Sacred Obligation
We have been insisting
since 1994 in the forum of JCM that restriction on the compassionate ground
appointments to 5% should go. Railways
the biggest employer, employing more than 50% of the C.G. employees, is not imposing
this restriction. Why others should be denied?
The Standing Parliamentary Committee of DOP&T has declared that this
system of Compassionate appointments gives a standing assurance to every new entrant in Government service
that if he dies in harness, his family will not be left in lurch. And
therefore, it is a sacred obligation on the Government to honour it by offering
employment to a family member of the deceased Government Servant. It had now
been also recognized by the Law Department that there is no such restriction
imposed by the Supreme Court of India. This restriction has been imposed
through an executive order which Railways has not been following. And
therefore, just like in the case of Railway employees, we should also get
compassionate appointment without any limitation of 5% quota in vacancies. And
also there is no such quota in the Roster. An employee who is given such an
appointment belongs to OC/ SC/ST /OBC will be adjusted in the respective
quotas.
A cruel exploitation of the
Society
Outsourcing/downsizing /
off- loading/contractorisation and corporatization will continue to be opposed
by us for very obvious reasons. We don’t share the belief of the Government
that the entire work in the Government to implement the social reforms like
education should be handed over to the private hands. And the Government should
be confined to Law and Order and Administration of Justice. The Government has
therefore resorted to huge downsizing over a period of last two decades,
resulting in a situation in which most of the Departments have become
nonviable. The spree of downsizing has to be resisted and fought. One method
adopted to downsize is that they will off load the work which is being done.
Even in Departments like Audit , many of the Auditing units are being exempted
from Audit. In other places the annual audit has been converted into
biennial/triennial Audit. Quantum of Audit has been restricted to reducing
manpower. Outsourcing is another form of downsizing. For achieving this
downsizing, many functions are either being given to NGOs, Societies or from on
Department to another Department. The work of filing the IT Returns has been
handed over to Postal Department. System of Franchisee in Postal Department for
sale of stamps is multiplying. This type of outsourcing has resulted in a
system which is not accountable to anybody. And therefore, undesirable
irregularities are multiplying. And even Government revenue is passing into
private hands. Uncontrolled corruption is being practiced by these private
agencies to which the functions have been outsourced. Contractorisation is very
rampant in Public Sector undertakings. 80% of the workforce is contract
workers. It is now discreetly creeping into Government Services.
The 6th CPC has
recommended the contractorisation of Watch and Ward Staff and other unskilled
labour. This is a conspiracy whereby the Formal Sector employment with decent
wages and perks is being converted into informal Sector with indecent fixed
wages and no perks or even social security measures like pension and Medicare.
Obviously we cannot but oppose such policies. Corporatization is an indirect
method of eventual privatization. BSNL is the latest example. With the
Government Telecom was earning about Rs. 8000 crores. In other words, highest
revenue was generated. Today it is running into losses as a corporate entity of
BSNL. Workers are not getting Bonus for the last two years. Medicare scheme has
been withdrawn. Employees have been persuaded to go on VR and then seek
reemployment on fixed lower wages. An employee drawing Rs. 50,000 after being
paid VR amounts is being re-employed at Rs. 8000 p.m. At this rate, the day is
not far off when the entire corporation is sold to some private entity in order
to pay back the ADB loan. Obliviously, we the Central Government employees
along with other workers will continue to oppose these policies which are anti
people and anti worker policies.
How long they will remain
Exra-Departmental?
Postal Department is
keeping the half of its work force out of the boundaries of the Department.
They are labeled as Extra Departmental Workers and denied the status of
Government employees, in spite of the favourable judicial pronouncement from
the highest Court of the land that, they are the civil servants. They were kept
out of the purview of the Central Pay Commission. They are denied pension,
medical facilities, equal bonus etc. Hence, it is being demanded that the GDS
employees should be brought under the purview of 7th CPC. It is utmost
important to seriously press for the status of holders of civil posts for these
large chunk of the workforce by dismantling the Extra Departmental system.
Five time-bound promotions
on par with Gr.A Officers
The system of time bound
promotions twice in a career was first introduced in CPWD Department for
engineers, then in the P&T, and also for the Drivers. The Confederation
pleaded before the 5th CPC for a scheme of
three time bound promotions in respect of all employees. The Commission
recommended two Financial up-gradations in the existing hierarchy, which was
implemented by the Government in 1990.
The 6th CPC modified the
said scheme by providing for two financial up-gradations uniformly in the Grade
Pay hierarchy as opposed to promotional hierarchy. The Government of India
provided for three Financial up-gradations after 10,20,30 years of service. The
net result is that in most of the cases two Financialupgradations in ACP scheme
were far better than three MACPs in Grade Pay hierarchy. When, however we
examined the existing scheme of promotions in the Gr. A Services, we find that
they have been assured of 5 time bound promotions in their career spanning 20
to 25 years. Comparatively therefore, Gr. C employees were only getting three
MACPs which are below par to two ACPs of 1999. The employees have therefore
right to demand equal treatment of five time bound promotions which only Gr. A
employees are enjoying today. We are guaranteed equality of opportunity in our
Constitution and therefore we have to get 5 time bound promotion opportunities,
as is presently available to the Gr. A Officers.
Ceiling on Bonus – a mockery
of Justice
The existing ceiling for
entitlement of bonus is Rs. 3500. The term ceiling connotes something higher
than the base. Today the base wage is in around 10 to 12 thousand. How can
there be a ceiling of Rs. 3500, which is obviously at the lower altitude than
the base? It can never be called a ceiling. As a matter of fact, the so called
ceiling has become the base of the underground and the basic salary the base at
ground level. We therefore demand that this concept of ceiling may be scrapped.
Bonus should be paid on the basis of the wages itself. And if at all ceiling is
to be prescribed it should at the higher rate than the average pay which is now
being paid.
Lofty ideals of JCM gone to
wind
Joint Consultative
Machinery was conceived as a grievance settlement scheme, as opposed to normal
bilateral negotiations which may or may not result in settlement. It was
specifically provided in the scheme that the issues raised in the JCM meeting
will be concluded in the very meeting itself and not left for a later decision
by the Government. It was also provided that if the issues could not be
discussed fully in a meeting, it will be remitted to smaller Joint Committee,
which would conclude the discussion and submit the report to next meeting in
which it will be settled. These days there are items pending in the various
fora of JCM for number of years . There are instances where a disagreement
reached in the meeting was finally recorded after a lapse of 4 years as the
Government took time to take a final decision in the matter. In other words,
this JCM scheme has ceased to be an instant settlement mechanism. The frequency
of meetings prescribed was minimum three meetings in a year. Meetings are now held not once in four months
as prescribed, but once in three to four years. The result is that grievances
of the employees have been kept pending and accumulated. The JCM scheme was a
3-tire Scheme. One at National, Second at Departmental level and Third at
Office level. Since 1993 after promulgamation of Recognition of Service
Association Rules, the Departmental Councils in most of the Departments stopped
functioning. Even after the 6th CPC report manyof these Departmental Councils
have not at all been revived. Many Organizations have not at all been accorded
fresh recognition since 1995. Therefore, most of the second tire Departmental
Councils have ceased to exist. For these reasons we have demanded effective
operation of the scheme of JCM at all the levels. The employees belonging to
Gr-C and D have been given coverage
under JCM in 1966. Over a period of time on account of periodic wage revision
in the year1973, 1986, 1996 and 2006 the status ofmany of Gr-C employees has
been upgraded to Gr-B employees, merely because of the higher wages andnot on
the basis of additional functions. The present situation is that even a post up
to the level ofAssistant who is educated up to graduation has no supervisory
functions and is being classified as Gr-B . And all such upgraded employees
have been taken out of the coverage of JCM. There cannot be therefore, any
grievancesettlement mechanism for all these employees. On a rough assessment
only a 30% of total employees now remain under the coverage of JCM. Our demand
is that all the govt. employees irrespective of classification should be given
coverage in JCM. And at least those categories who are under the coverage of
JCM at the time of the inception of JCM should continue to be under JCM
regardless of change of the classification.
We have inherited the
Struggle path
A question will arise
why confederation has decided to go on direct action in support of these common
demands, why they have not waited for Railways and Defence workers to join in
such a call. It is our observation that over a period of time the initiatives
in the direction of finalization of the Charter and direct action had always
been taken in the first instance by the Confederation. In 1957 we decided to go
on indefinite strike on the demand of Second Pay Commission. Railways and
Defence workers did not at all join it. But we achieved this demand, because we
stood firm by our decision to go on strike. Even in 1960 the campaign to go on
strike, was initiated by the Confederation , JCA was constituted much later and
joint action by the entirety of Central Government employees was successfully implemented the
five day long strike. The same story has been repeated at the time of the 4t ,
5th and 6th CPCs . Therefore, only when we go ahead on the struggle path, the
leadership of Railwaymen and Defence workers gets interested and eventually
joins. The other aspect of this initiation is that it has been our experience
that the Governments of the day whichever formation of the party it may belong
have always tended to ignore the demands of the employees. The 2nd CPC was
established only when we decided to go on strike. The 4th 5th and 6th CPCs were
also set up only after the Central Government employees united under the banner
of JCA and gave a call of indefinite strike. Strike notices were served by
holding rallies throughout the country and the Government came down to
negotiation table and settled our demands. In the year 1993 Confederation and
National Federation of Postal Employees had to organize six days strike to
force the government to extend bonus to all non-gazetted employees, which was
initially extended to only Railway employees. It is on the basis of these
experiences that we have not only to decide to go on strike but also prepare
ourselves for implementing this decision of the strike. Every Government employee should draw a lesson from the above
experience that if he wants to settle the common demands, he has to take an
individual decision to join the call given by the Organization.
Source: nfpe.blogspot.in