Wednesday, 18 July 2018
Tuesday, 17 July 2018
LABOUR LAWS REFORMS
In the name of reforms and ease of doing
business, many labour laws have been amended. Present govt. proposed four
labour codes, consolidating 44 labour laws. But during these four years none of
the labour code was presented in the Parliament. Only Wages Act 2017 was
presented in Parliament. This Act will replace 4 laws i.e. Minimum
Wages Act, Wages payment Act, Equal wages Act and Bonus Act. Besides this two
more code bills are also under process one related to social security and
another related to job and profession.
But without getting these bills passed by the
Parliament, Govt. has implemented some of the amendments. First attack on workers
was unleashed by amending Factories Act. According to amendment the
no. of workers was increased from 10 to 20 for the factories run by power and
20 to 40 run without power. Thus about 70% factories were put
outside the purview of Factories Act and the workers working in these factories
were deprived from protection of these laws. After amendment of 2015, the
employer has been permitted to call the women workers to work in night
shift. Third amendment was made in 2016 and according to this the
limit of over time has been enhanced from 50 hours to 100 hours, for heavy work
it is 115 hours and for the work of public interest it is increased as 125
hours. So in the name of public interest, the employer has been
given power to compel the worker to work on overtime for 125 hours in a
quarter.
Second big attack was made under
National Employability Mission under which the worker can be engaged as Apprentice
in the place of permanent or contract worker and he will be paid minimum
stipend and can be engaged for three years which was 6 months earlier. Thus so
many industrialists are retrenching the permanent workers and engaging new
workers on apprentice.
Third big attack now has come in the form of
fixed term employment. In so many sectors this govt. has introduced fixed term
employment in place of permanent job, and an impression has been created that
all statutory benefits will be provided to the workers engaged under this. But
what will be the fate of workers after that fixed term is not decided. The
period of fixed term has also been left to the industrialists. They will decide
as to for how much period worker is to be engaged. For such type of workers
engaged under fixed term, the EPF contribution will be deposited by the Govt.
This incentive given by the Govt. proves that the fixed term employment will be
for three years only. After fixed term what will be the position of
unemployment has been ignored by the Govt.
Thus the present Govt. making all amendments
in labour sector for the benefit of industrialists and corporate in the name of
ease of doing business and the rights of workers are being snatched slowly and our country
is moving ahead towards slavery system or bonded labour system again which was
defeated by consistent struggle of workers.
Gist of VII CPC National Anomaly Committee Meeting held on 17th July 2018
The meeting of the 7 CPC
National Anomaly Committee was held on 17.07.2018. The Department of Personnel
had identified the following six items only for discussion:
1.
Item No. 3 — Removal of condition of 3% stipulated to grant bunching benefit
2.
Item No. 4 — Fixation of pay on promotion
3.
Item No. 5 — Removal of Anomaly in Pay Matrix
4.
Item No 8 — Lesser Pay in higher level of Pay Matrix
5. Item No. 9 – Bunching of steps in the
revised pay structure
6. Item No. 14 — Grant of GP 5400 to Sr Section Officer of Railways and AAOs of
IA&AD and Organised Accounts (Civil Accounts, Postal Accounts and Defence
Accounts)
The above items were subjected to
discussions and the following decisions were taken.
Item No 3 — The Govt. will consider as to how the matter
could be resolved after assessing financial implications
Item No 4 — The suggestion of the Staff Side to fix the pay
on promotion at the next higher stage after granting one increment was not
accepted. After discussion it was agreed that Govt would address the issue on
case by case basis. Those who are covered by the anomaly described under this
item have been advised to make representation to Fin. Ministry directly. The
stall side however insisted that the entire anomaly would be resolved if two increments are granted while on
promotion/MACP.
Item No. 5 & 8 — It was agreed by the official side that
this is an aberration and shall be
addressed.
Item No 9 — Rejected by official side
Item No 14 — The matter is under consideration of the Govt.
After completing discussions on the above items, the Staff
Side insisted that the following remaining items may
also be taken up for discussion.
Item No.1 Anomaly in computation
of Minimum Wage
Item No.2. 3 % Increment at all
stages
Item No.6 Anomaly due to index
rationalization
Item No.7 Anomaly arising from the
decision to reject option No. 1 in pension fixation
Item No. 10 Minimum Pension
Item No.11 Date of Effect of
Allowances -HRA, Transport Allowance, CEA etc.
Item No.18 Anomaly in the grant of
D.A. installment w.e.f. 1.1.2016
After discussion on the above items, the official side informed that the DOPT
had already examined those issues and have come to the conclusion that those
items will not come under the ambit of the definition of Anomaly. The Staff
Side contested this. It was decided that the DOPT will convey the reasoning to
the staff side and hold meeting with the Staff Side to sort out the
differences.
The following items have
been referred to Departmental Anomaly Committee of the respective
Department/Ministries.
Item No.15. Technical
Supervisors of Railways
Item No.16 Anomaly in the assignment of
replacement of Levels of pay in the Ministry of Defence, Railways, Mines etc in
the case of Store Keepers
Item NO.I 7 Anomaly in the assignment of
pay Levels in the case of Research Assistants in Ministry of AYUSH,
Homoeopathic Department.
The staff side then raised the following other issues.
1. Central Govt employees may be granted one more option to
switch over to 7 CPC from a date subsequent to 25th of July 2016 — the official side informed that the matter is
under consideration and a decision would be taken shortly.
2. The issue of pay fixation of ex-servicemen in the last pay
drawn by them before retirement from armed forces is remitting unsettled — the
official side informed that the matter has been referred to Min. of Defence by
DOPT for their comments. Decision would be taken after receipt of comments from
MOD.
3. The Staff side raised the issue of not convening meetings
of the National Council, JCM and Standing Committee.
4. The staff Side also informed of the decision taken by the
NJCA in its meeting held on 3-7-2018 of the revival of the deferred indefinite
strike by the Central Govt Employees if no settlement is brought about on major
demands like upward revision of minimum pay, fitment factor and NPS before
7-8-2018.
7th CPC House Building Advance Order for enhancement in loan sanctioned on or after 01.01.2016 but before 09.11.2017
I-17011/11(4)12016-H.III
Government of India
Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs
Housing-III Section
*****
Nirman Bhawan, New Delhi,
Dated . 29.06.2018.
Subject: Interest bearing advances/ Seventh Central Pay commission recommendation on House Building Advance - enhancement in past cases regarding.
The undersigned is directed to invite attention to this Ministry's OM No. I-17011/11(4)/2016-H.Ill dated 09.11.2017 on the above-mentioned subject and to say that it has been decided in consultation with Ministry of Finance to make the aforesaid orders applicable with effect from 1st January, 2016. Accordingly, it has been decided that an enhancement of House Building Advance, if applied for, would be granted to government employee for an amount equivalent to the difference between the previously sanctioned amount and the new eligible amount determined on the basis of basic pay as per 7th CPC, in past cases, where HBA was sanctioned on or after 01.01.2016 but before 09.11.2017 subject to complying following conditions:
a) The Government employee should not have drawn the entire amount of HBA sanctioned under earlier orders and/ or where construction is not completed/full cost towards acquisition of house! flat is yet to be paid.
b) There will be no deviation from the approved plan of construction on the basis of which the original sanction of House Building Advance was accorded. The revised cost of the original plan can, however, be considered for determining the additional amount, subject to the prescribed maximum limits.
c) Supplementary Mortgage Deed. Personal Bond and Sureties will be drawn and executed at the expense of the loanee.
d) The actual entitlement will be restricted to the repaying capacity computed on the basis of the formula laid down in this Ministry's OM No I-1701/1/11(4)/2016-H.III dated 09.11.2017. It should be ensured that the entire amount of advance with interest is recovered before retirement of the Government servant
e) Rate of interest: The rate of interest will be at 8.50% from the financial year 2017-18 onwards. This will be reviewed every three years to be notified in consultation with Ministry of Finance. However, the new rate of interest would be chargeable only on collective amount that would remain outstanding on grant of enhancement of HBA. i.e., the unpaid portion of previously sanctioned HBA plus the enhancement so granted. Thus. the amount of HBA that has already been re-paid on old rates will not attract the fresh interest charges.
2. However, the existing limit of maximum admissible amount of Rs. 25 lakhs for the purpose of construction! purchase of new house/ flat and Rs. 10 lakhs for expansion of existing house/ flat would remain unchanged. In other words, the sum total of previously, sanctioned House Building Advance and the enhancement granted under these orders cannot exceed the aforesaid limits. In any case, not more than one enhancement is admissible to a Government employee.
3. The applications for enhanced House Building Advance should be submitted within six months from the date of issue of this order.
4. Ministries/ Departments with branch offices in the far-flung areas are be advised to give wider publicity to these orders through modern communication means so that there is no occasion for any representation for extending the time limit of six months on the grounds of late receipt of these orders.
5. This issues in supersession of all the earlier orders on the subject.
Sd/-
(Shailendra Vikra Singh)
Director (IFD)
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