CHARTER OF DEMANDS OF CCGGOO

1. Minimum Wage:

(1) The Confederation of Central Government Gazetted Officers’ Organisations (CCGGOO) as well as all the Federations of Central Government Employees   uniformly demanded a minimum wage of Rs.26, 000 giving full justification and calculation for the same in the Memorandum submitted to the 7^th CPC.  However, the 7^th CPC failed to appreciate the scientific calculation for Rs.26,000, but arbitrarily fixed at Rs.18,000/- on the plea that Government gives a host of other benefits that can be measured under the CTG (Cost to Government of an employee) concept.  CCGGOO is not in agreement with the methodology adopted by the 7^th Central Pay Commission.

(2) In respect of the addition of 25% to be made for children education and social obligation as per the Supreme Court Judgment, the Commission has reduced it to 15% on the specious plea that the employees are separately given children education allowance. The Children Education allowance is not a full reimbursement of the expenses one has incurred.   It is not according to Dr.Aykroyd  formula.

(3) The reduction of factor for housing from 7.5% which was adopted by the 3^rd pay commission is against the 15^th ILC Norms.

(4) The retail prices of the commodities quoted by the Labour Bureau is not in order, imaginary and factually incorrect in respect of certain articles at certain places.  The adoption of 12 monthly average of the retail prices is contrary to Dr.Aykroyd formula.  The website maintained for the Agriculture Ministry depicts the retail prices of commodities which go into the basket of minimum wage computation. Eventhough,  the rates quoted by them vary from the real retail prices in the market, it provides a different picture.

(5) The commission stated that benefits given to the employees in the lowest rung in the government, whether monetized or not, are significantly higher than the minimum basic pay and also much higher than the emoluments of skilled industrial workers and hence the 7^th CPC restricted the minimum pay of Rs.20, 870/- arrived at by the Commission to Rs.18, 000/- which is not fair.

(6) Calculating employee’s wife as 0.80 unit while computing the minimum wage component is gender bias and is totally unfair.

(7) In the case of Bank, Insurance and many other Public Sector Undertakings wage revision takes place once in 5 years. In the recently concluded agreement, Bank employees were provided more than 15% increase.

(8) After the appointment of 7^th Central Pay Commission, Government employees of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have been given a wage structure based on a minimum wage far above the level of Central Government employees. Their wage revision does take place once in 5 years.

The minimum wage therefore requires re-computation and revision. Revise the fitment formula, the multiplication factor applied for determining the pay levels and the Pay Matrix on the basis of the so determined minimum wage.

2. Grievance Redressal Mechanism:

Constitute a suitable Grievance redressal machinery to redress the grievances of Central Government Gazetted Officers.

The issues concerning the Gazetted officers in regard to recruitment, pay scales, promotion, conditions of work, pay anomaly, standards of work continue to mount for the past sixty five years on account of   the absence of apex level “Grievance Redressal mechanism’’. The impact of such omission has been accelerating, as this issue had not been paid due attention by the successive Pay Commissions. The 7^th Central Pay Commission, inter alia, deals with “other service conditions of the Central Government Employees”,  whereas the recommendations issued by the 7^th pay Commission is, surprisingly, silent about the issue as to the establishment of ‘Grievance Redressal Mechanism’ for Group ‘B’ Gazetted Officers and promotee Group ‘A’ Officers. This is again perpetuating the injustice to the Gazetted officers of an opportunity to have Grievance redressal machinery. Hence immediate establishment of the mechanism to the Gazetted Officers to undo the injustice caused that has been persisting for decades.

3. Grant bonus, Work Related Illness and Injury Leave (WRIIL) and allowances related to Risk and Hardship to Gazetted Officers.

4. Grant a unified pay scale equivalent to the Grade Pay of Rs.5400/- to all entry level Group ‘B’ Gazetted Officers in the Central Government.

5.Restructure the Group ’B’ Gazetted cadre in all Departments from the entry level equivalent to level 9 and further grant subsequent -Time scales/levels in a time bound manner as is followed in Gr.’’A’’ cadre.

6. Withholding Annual Increments of non-performers after 20 years:

The Commission has proposed withholding of annual increments in the case of those employees who are not able to meet the benchmark of “Very Good” either for MACP or a regular promotion within the first 20 years of their service (Paras 5.1.44 – 5.1.46).  The Commission further stated that this would be treated as an “Efficiency bar” and for such employees there could be an option to leave service on similar terms and conditions as prescribed for voluntary retirement. These deterrent conditions proposed by the 7^th CPC would lead to victimization of the employees by the acts of the biased and or conservative supervising officers.  This will ultimately demotivate the sincere, hardworking and straight forward officials at subordinate levels.  The extant rules are sufficiently enough to take care of the delinquent officials and so the recommendation of the 7^th CPC in para 5.1.46 needs to be ignored.

7. For delayering, the pay levels pertaining to the Grade pays of Rs.4600 should be upgraded to Rs.4800 and Rs.8,700  to Rs.8,900.

8. Child Care Leave (CCL)

It is disheartening to note the recommendation of reducing the salary by 20% for availing second spell of 365 days CCL.  This recommendation will have a telling effect on the entire family in cases where the beneficiary employee is the sole bread winner of the family. As such, reduction in salary for availing CCL as recommended by the 7^th CPC also needs to be ignored.

9. Abolition of interest - free advances

The 7^th CPC has recommended that all interest - free advances should be abolished (Para 9.1.4). In this connection, the impact of the abolition of interest - free advances with respect to the following merits special attention viz.,

            1. Advance of TA on Tour/Transfer/Retirement

            2. Advance of LTC

           3 Advance in connection with Medical treatment.

Advance of TA on Tour: Presently the advance shall be adjusted immediately after completion of tour.  If the recommendation is implemented, the official who undertakes official tour for a month (30 days) has to meet the expenses from his/her pocket which roughly works out to Rs.1, 04,640 i.e., Reimbursement of staying accommodation charges @ Rs.2250 + Reimbursement of travelling charges @Rs.338 per day + lump sum amount payable for food @Rs.900 per day for 30 days for level 9 to 11.   Thus the official undertaking tour has to bear around Rupees one lakh per month which is miserable.  It is not uncommon in Government sector that reimbursement bills are not paid immediately as it requires intense verification/processing of bills by the administration and PAO.  Abolition of Advance of TA on Tour will eventually ruin the official financially.  Such recommendations should be ignored.

TA on Transfer/Retirement: The 7^th CPC recommended that Composite Transfer and Packing Grant (CTG) should be paid @ 80% of last month’s Basic Pay and no other add-ons should be allowed in Basic Pay while calculating CTG.  This restriction of CTG  to 80% render the official financially miserable.  Therefore, the so-called “general approach of rationalizing the percentage based allowances by a factor of 0.8” has to be ignored.

The interest - free advances and interest bearing advances like Motor Car and Scooter advances should not be abolished as they were given only to safeguard the interest of the government employees as well as the Government functioning.

10. Ceiling on Death cum Retirement Gratuity (DCRG):

The 7^th CPC has recommended enhancement in the ceiling of gratuity from the existing Rs.10 lakh to Rs.20 lakh from 1.1.2016 (Para 10.1.37) The Confederation demanded that there should be no ceiling for DCRG. On implementation of 7^th CPC Pay Matrix, the officials especially placed in level 9 and above would, no doubt, reach the ceiling of Rs.20 lakh in 3 or 4 years.  Besides, if ceiling would be increased by 25% whenever DA raises by 50% as recommended, the same problem would arise as there  would be no further increase in ceiling beyond 50% rise in DA. Therefore, there should not be any ceiling of gratuity. Gratuity calculation to be on the basis of 25 days in the month as against 30 days as per the Gratuity Act.

11. Increment:

a)Rate of Increment :

The 6^th CPC initially recommended increment @ 2.5% which was ultimately increased to 3%.  In the Pay Matrix recommended by 7^th CPC, the increment is below 3% in certain Levels. The Confederation had demanded increment @ 5% to have parity with that of PSUs where increment @ 5% is provided.  The 7^th CPC recommended vide para 5.1.38 that the rate of annual increment is being retained at 3%.  The 7^th CPC had not taken into cognizance the Confederation’s demand.  The increment rate is necessarily to be enhanced to 5%.

b)Problem in uniform date of increment as 1^st July:

CCGGOO brought to the notice of the 7^th CPC that the uniform date of increment prescribed by 6^th CPC has encountered certain problems and demanded that two specific dates as increment dates viz., 1st January and 1^st July so that those recruited/appointed/promoted during the period between 1^st January and 30^th June will have their increment date on 1^st January and those recruited/appointed/promoted between 1^st July and 31^st December will have it on 1^st July next year.  Therefore, in order to mitigate the hardship, we reiterate that two specific dates as increment dates viz., 1^st January and 1^st July.

c) Provide one increment on the last day in service if the concerned employee has completed six months or more from the date of grant of last increment.

d) Two increments at the time of promotion may be provided as the recommendation has not made any replacement for Grade Pay difference being provided at the time of promotion.

12. CGEGIS :

The apportionment ratio between Savings and Insurance Funds requires to be re visited and the quantum of Insurance segment to be reduced. V CPC recommended 75:25 ratio   as an interim measure. As mortality rate, life expectancy and health delivery systems of Central Government Officers and Employees have improved over a period of time,the Tables of Benefits published by Ministry of Finance should be modified periodically. Appropriate Machinery for a periodical review of the current mortality rates and adjustment of the apportionment ratio should be established. The premium to CGEGIS should be given basic exemption from Income tax.

13. MACP

MACP has to be treated as financial up -gradation without any grading stipulation and to be provided on the basis of the promotional cadre hierarchy of the concerned department.  Ignore the examination, Benchmark ’very good’, efficiency bar stipulation made by the 7^th Central Pay Commission. Reasonable promotional policy for Group ’B’ Gazetted Officers in technical and supervisory cadre has to be framed.

14. Revise the pay once in five years instead of 10 years now in vogue.

15. Fill up all vacancies in various departments by holding special recruitment drive. Contract/Casual and daily rated employees to be regularised against the huge vacancies existing in various Government offices.

16 .Reimbursement of staying accommodation charges :

The 7^th CPC recommended the ceiling for reimbursement of staying accommodation charges of Rs.2250 for level 9 to 11, Rs.750 for level 6 to 8 per day.  The quantum of allowances recommended for level 6 to 8 is extremely low and getting lodging accommodation for Rs.750/- especially in urban centres is extremely difficult.  The quantum recommended also is not commensurate with the market rent.  Therefore,  the accommodation charges for level 6 to 8 may be increased to Rs.1500 per day.  Similarly for the level 9 to 11 the accommodation charges to be raised to Rs.3000/- per day.  The 7^th CPC has not given even single rupee extra over the prevailing accommodation charges and simply reiterated the old rate. Therefore, CCGGOO urges suitable upward revision of accommodation charges for level 6 to 8 and 9 to 11.

17. Retain the rate of House rent allowance in place of the recommendation of the commission to reduce it.

18. Restructure the Transport Allowance into two slabs at Rs.7500 and 3750 with DA thereof removing all the stipulated conditions.

19 (i) Fixed conveyance allowance: This allowance had no DA component at any stage. This allowance must be enhanced to 2.25 times with 25% DA thereon as and when the DA crosses 50%. (ii). Restore the island Special duty allowance and the Tripura Special compensatory remote locality allowance. (iii) . The special duty allowance in NE Region should be uniform for all at 30% (iv) Small family norms allowance etc should be continued. (v) The erroneous statement in para 9.2.5 to be corrected in respect of Child Adoption Leave period.

20.  Exclude the Central Government Gazetted Officers and employees from the ambit of the National Pension Scheme (NPS) and extend the defined benefit pension scheme to all those recruited after 01.01.2004.

21.  Parity between the past and present pensioners to be brought about on the basis of the 7^th CPC recommendations with the modification that the basis of computation to be  the pay level of the Post/Grade/Scale of pay from which one retired, whichever is beneficial.

22.  Pension to be 60% of the last pay drawn in the case of all eligible persons who have completed the requisite number of years of service.

23. The family pension to be 50% of the last pay drawn. (b) Enhance the pension and family pension by 5% after every five years and 10% on attaining the age of 85 and 20% on attaining the age of 90. (c) Commuted value of pension to be restored after 10 years or attaining the age of 70, whichever is earlier.

24. Fixed medical allowance for those pensioners not covered by CGHS and REHS to be

increased to Rs. 2000 p.m.

25. Strengthening of the existing CGHS and CSMA facilities is the need of the hour. The health of the employees and pensioners cannot be left at the mercy of Insurance Companies and their mechanisations. CGHS should be expanded to cover all the major/important cities where employees are working and pensioners are residing. The Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health & Family Welfare in its report recommended for establishing separate Super Speciality Hospitals exclusively for CGHS beneficiaries, on the lines of Ministry of Railways, Defence and ESIC, one in each Metro City. Provide Cashless, hassle free medical facilities to all Central Government officers, employees and pensioners. Improvements in the existing Medicare systems viz., CS (Medical Attendance) Rules & CGHS has to be carried out.

26. Extend the scope of Children Education Allowance (CEA) to Graduate and Post Graduate studies.

27. Civilianization of Military Engineering Service (MES), DGQA, DRDO, Survey of India, BRO etc. Implement the observation of 7^th CPC according to para 11.12.42 to 45.

28. Parity to be ensured to all Officers and staff in field/subordinate offices with Central Secretariat by upgrading their pay scales and not by downgrading the pay scales of the CSS.