Highlights of the 5th meeting of the National Anomaly Committee.
1. The 4th meeting of the National Anomaly Committee (NAC), which was held on 5.1.2012 at 2.3o PM at New Delhi was adjourned. Record Note of that meeting is at ANNEXURE I. The NAC next met subsequently on 17th July, 2012 at 3.00 PM in Conference Room No 119, North Block and was chaired by Shri P K Misra, Secretary DOP&T. A list of members who attended this meeting is at ANNEXURE II.
2. The Chairman welcomed all members of Official and Staff Side of the National Anomaly Committee. He mentioned that the recommendations of the 6th Central Pay Commission were extensively discussed with the Staff Side representatives and the Government had also made improvements while implementing them. He referred to further discussions on pay related matters in this forum and Government agreement on certain issues raised by the Staff Side besides issuing of clarificatory instructions. Since some of the issues raised by the Staff Side had earlier been discussed with the Staff Side during the implementation of 6th CPC recommendations and were amicably resolved, he suggested that there has to be finality in regard to the pay scales implemented by the Government on the basis of recommendations of the 6th CPC. He stated that settled issues which were resolved in consultation with the Staff Side earlier need not be reopened.
3. The Chairman also stated that after the last meeting of the National Anomaly Committee held on 5th January, 2012, Government has issued orders relating to grant of one increment in pre-revised pay scale on 1.1.2006 as a onetime measure in respect of all those employees whose next increment fell between 1.2.2006 to 30.6.2006 which was a significant resolution of the issue raised by the Staff Side. Further, Temporary Status Casual Labourers have since been granted wages on the basis of the Grade Pay of Rs.1800 at Pay Band I with effect from 1.1.2006 vide DoPT OM dt. 23.01.2012, an issue raised by the Staff Side in this committee. In regard to doubling of Risk Allowance, the Chairman informed that the Government was in the process of seeking Cabinet's approval to the proposal as requested by the Staff Side.
4. The Chairman concluded by expressing that with the spirit of cooperation and mutual understanding as evinced in the earlier meetings the issues would get resolved through the process of constructive dialogue and discussion.
5. The Leader, Staff Side, while thanking the Chairman raised the issue of irregular functioning of the JCM in various Departments. He pointed out that Departmental Councils were either not functioning or have not been constituted. He also suggested that to resolve problems in MACP Scheme an honest comparison of erstwhile ACP Scheme with MACPS may be made for analysing if there is any improvement.
6. The Secretary, Staff Side, in his opening remarks stated that though the JCM Scheme has been effective in resolving disputes between the Central Government employees and the Government of India, of late, the scheme is not being administered properly causing discontentment among the staff of the Central Government . He requested the Chairman that it should be ensured that scheme functions effectively both at the National and Departmental levels in letter and spirit. He also pointed out that in many departments, Departmental Council has not yet been formed, and where Departmental Councils are in existence they are not functioning properly. He also requested that a separate discussion should be held on MACP Scheme related matters, and the date for the same should be fixed very shortly.
7. The members of the Staff Side also raised the issue of slow progress in resolution of the issues and in this context demanded that greater delegation of decision making powers with the Ministries. The Official Side responded by stating that on issues related to common categories of personnel such a delegation of authority can lead to disturbance in vertical and horizontal relativities in the pay structure across several Departments/Ministries. Consequently, this shall give rise to a large number of anomalies which may be difficult to resolve. The Chairman assured that all the departments will be appropriately advised to revive the Departmental Councils functioning as per the JCM scheme. The Chairman also said that separate meeting for discussing the issues relating to MACP Scheme would be held under Joint Secretary (E), DoPT at the earliest in consultation with the Staff Side.
8. The Agenda Items were subsequently taken up for discussion as follows:-
8.1 Items No.1, 2, 3 & 4 — Fixation of pay in revised pay scale
On this item the Staff Side reiterated their demand that the pay of the incumbents holding the merged pay scales of Rs.5000-8000/- and Rs.5500-9000 should have been fixed by applying the multiplying factor of 1.86 at Rs.6500/-with effect from 1.1.2006 implying thereby that the commencement point of the Pay Band 2 should be at Rs.12090/- based on 6500 X 1.86 = 12090 instead of Rs.9300/- computed by multiplying Rs.5000/- by 1.86. The Official Side maintained that the fitment tables are as much a part of the 6th CPC's report as in the narrative portion and hence the recommendations of the 6th CPC have to be read in conjunction with the fitment tables. The Official Side informed that incumbents in the pre-revised pay scale of Rs.6500-to50o have been granted Grade Pay of Rs.4600/- and therefore there was no justification for this demand. Since there was no consensus on this issue, it was decided that on this issue a disagreement may have to be recorded.
8 .2 Special Allowance and Qualification Pay
The Official Side referred to earlier discussions on this issue in the meeting held on 5th January, 2012. It stated that since special qualifying pay was revised from 1.9.2008 while the pay scales were revised from 1.1.2006. in cases where a senior employee is promoted during the period 1.1.2006 to 31.8.2008 gets the benefit of pre-revised qualification pay while junior employees promoted on or after 1.9.2008 have been granted the benefit of revised qualification pay and therefore the pay of the seniors getting fixed at lower stage as compared to the juniors may result in an anomaly.
The Chairman directed that this anomaly needs to be resolved within one month.
8 . 3 Item No.5 (ii), (iv)(with 32 & 33), (v)(vii) - Rule 8 of the Revised Pay Rules Fixation of pay on promotion
Staff Side stated that anomaly in this case is basically due to the fact that it is for the first time that CPC has recommended specific entry level pay for Direct Recruits (DRs). This has resulted in employees who were appointed in service prior to the DRs and got promoted earlier getting less pay as compared to their counterparts recruited directly and who joined after 1.1.2006. The Official Side stated that in such cases stepping up of pay is permissible subject to certain conditions. However, the Staff Side insisted that on promotion, the pay of all the promotees should be fixed at the entry level of pay of that post as in the case of the direct recruits, wherever there is a provision of direct recruitment in the RRs.
The Staff Side requested that in cases where no direct recruitment actually took place even though RRs provided for the same or when a DR did not join, stepping up of pay should be considered.
This suggestion of the Staff Side was considered by the Official Side, who responded by stating that wherever there is a provision of direct recruitment in the Recruitment Rules, pay on promotion would be fixed at the prescribed minimum of the Entry Pay as provided for the Direct Entrants in the Revised Pay Rules, irrespective of the fact whether direct recruitment has actually taken place or not. The Staff Side agreed to close this issue thereafter.
8.4 Item No 11 Granting revised allowances with effect from 1.1.2006
The Staff Side demanded that all the allowances should be doubled w.e.f. 1.1.2006 instead of 1.9.2008. It was pointed out that allowances were revised prospectively at the time of implementation of the recommendations of the 5th CPC also. The 6th CPC has also recommended that all allowances should be revised prospectively. Therefore, there is no anomaly as such. After discussions, the Staff Side agreed to drop this item.
8.5 Item No.12 & 13 — Transport Allowance
The Official Side stated that the issue of Transport Allowance was discussed with the Staff Side after the submission of the 6th CPC report and the rates of Transport Allowance were fixed as per these consultations. The Staff Side was, therefore called upon to honour such a commitment. The Staff Side explained that in those discussions, the issue of CCA being taken into account for payment of OTA to an employee was also raised. As CCA has since been subsumed in Transport Allowance which is not taken into account for payment of OTA, employees in respect of OTA are consequently at a loss.
It was decided that the issue of changes in the rates of Transport Allowance will stand closed and the issue of subsuming CCA under Transport Allowance and its repercussions on the payment of OTA will be examined separately.
The Staff Side also raised the issue of doubling of Daily Allowance on tour in those cases where it is not practical to get bills/receipts for fares charged by the Autorikshaws or bills for tea/snacks/meals from dhabas/ small restaurants/ roadside eateries etc. The Official Side stated that as per the present dispensation, employees have the option to claim for the pre- revised rates of D.A. without submitting any bills / receipts. The Staff Side however contended that the pre-revised rates of D.A. are too meagre to take care of the boarding and lodging requirements and should be doubled.
It was decided that the matter will be examined separately although this cannot be treated as an anomaly. The issue of rate of Transport allowance to employees staying in Gurgaon, Ghaziabad and Faridabad (NCR) was also raised by the Staff Side. The Official Side agreed to re-visit this matter separately.
8.6 Item No.14 — Revision of existing allowances which are to be withdrawn and replaced by new schemes
The Official Side informed that the matter pertaining to doubling of rates of Risk Allowance and Patient Care Allowance is under process for seeking Cabinet approval.
8.7 Item No.16 & 17 — Parity in Pension
The Chairman stated that since the matter is sub-judice, any further action on this issue will be dependent on the directions of the Court of Law. There seemed to be no point in keeping these items in the National Anomaly Committee. This was agreed to.
8.8 Item No.25, 25 & 26 — Commutation of Pension
The Staff Side stated that the additional amount of pension commutation due to retrospective revision of pay of post 31st December 2005 retirees, should be done on the basis of the then existing (old) commutation tables and not on the basis of the New Commutation Table recommended by the 6th CPC. This flows from the fact that the New Commutation-Table came into force on or after 1.9.2008 and, therefore cannot be made applicable to determine additional commutation value. As a matter of fact, the new Table was not in existence on the date of retirement of such pensioners.
The Official Side stated that the revised commutation table is used for calculating only the future commutation of pension and is not applicable to the past commutation. In respect of a pensioner who has already commuted the pension, the revised commutation table is used only to compute the amount of pension that has become additionally commutable due to retrospective implementation of the revised pay scales. Further, if the concerned pensioners feel that the revised commutation table is not favourable to them they have the option of not opting for the additional commutation. The Chairman pointed out that the suggestion of Staff Side to apply old commutation table in case of those retirees who retired between 1.1.2006 and 31.08.2008 could result in further anomaly for post 1.9.2008 retirees as in their case only revised commutation table is applicable. The Chairman directed Department of Pensions to work out tables using existing (old) commutation table and the revised commutation table for the employees who retired prior to and after 1.9.2038 so as to explore the possibility of a fair resolution for both the pre- 1.9.2008 as well as the post 1.9.2008 retirees.
8.9 Item No.29 & 30 — Revision of Base Index for D.A.
The Staff Side stated that a 12-monthly average index of 536 (AICPI-IW) 1982 series, corresponds to 74.97% increase over the base index of 306.33 as prescribed by V CPC. Since 74% increase in D.A. has only been merged in emoluments (Pay Band), this increase corresponds to 12 monthly average index of 533.02 of cost of living Index (1982=100) series. The base index for the 6th CPC Pay Scale should therefore be 533.02 of 1992 index i.e. 115.12 in (2001=100) series for the computation of D.A. in pay scale of VI CPC, and not 115.76.
Deptt. of Expenditure stated that Dearness Allowance is calculated based on the 12 monthly average of AICPI for Industrial Workers and that the twelve monthly average as on 1.1.96 was 306.33 and on 1.1.2006 it was 536. Government converted the average of 536 which is based on the 1982 series by dividing it by 4.63, which was the linking factor for conversion of the base from 536 to 115.76. The Sixth CPC also recommended the usage of the base of 536. The Official Side pointed out that although the Sixth CPC had in its Report mentioned a base of 116 but the Government worked it out as 115.76 which has resulted in relatively higher increase in Dearness Allowance.
The Chairman directed that since this issue entailed pure mathematical calculations, the Department of Expenditure will share the calculations with the Staff Side and if they still had any further issues, then those could be examined.
8.10 Item No.36 — Income criteria in respect of parents and widowed/divorced/unmarried daughters
In regard to the demand of the Staff Side to convert income criteria in respect of parents and widowed/divorced/unmarried daughters from the limit of Rs.3500/- plus DA to a fixed amount, it was pointed out that as per the present criterion as recommended by the 6th CPC, periodical enhancements in the rate of DR, would result in more and more families becoming eligible for family pension. The Staff Side agreed to drop this item.
8.11 Item No.38 & 39 — Anomaly in fixing grade pay
The Staff Side stated that the general recommendation of the 6th CPC was that the grade pay will be 40% of the maximum of the pre-revised pay scales. However, at the time of implementation of the recommendations of the 6th CPC, Government has given more than 40% as grade pay to certain categories of the employees in PB-3 and PB-4. Therefore, it was an anomaly and demanded that everyone should be given grade pay of at least 50% of the maximum of the pre-revised pay scales.
The Official Side stated that the demand of the Staff Side to give grade pay of at least 50% of the maximum of the pre-revised pay scales is against the general recommendations of the 6th CPC . In respect of certain employees, the 6th CPC has itself recommended a grade pay in excess of 40% of the maximum of the pre-revised pay scales. Also, in Para 2.2.21 the report of the 6th CPC, it has been clearly stated that in some cases, the amount of the grade pay has been adjusted so as to maintain a clear differential between successive grades pay. The government implemented the recommendations of the 6th CPC with certain conscious modifications in the Grade Pay in some cases. Moreover, the erstwhile Group D employees have also been granted grade pay in excess of 40% of the maximum of the pre-revised pay scales. It was pointed out to the Staff Side that even post 5th CPC, uniform benefit did not accrue to all employees. It was felt that this is a demand and not an anomaly and such an issue cannot be reopened at this stage.
8.12 Item No.41 — Fixation of pay on promotion to a post carrying the same grade pay.
The Staff Side demanded that with regard to fixation of pay on promotion to a post carrying the same grade pay, one increment should be granted. The Official Side was inclined to agree to such a suggestion on the condition that such a promotion shall also be reckoned with for the purpose of MACP. It was decided that in cases where promotion is to a post carrying the same grade pay, benefit of one increment would be considered separately for each category of employee subject to the condition that the promotional post had higher duties and responsibilities under FR 22(1)(a)(1) and an increment was permitted in such cases even prior to 6th CPC as the two posts carrying the same pay scale was not merged due to functional considerations. The issue of treating it as promotion for the purpose of MACPS will be
examined separately.
8.13 Item No.42 — MACPS
It was decided that since the issues involved in MACP Scheme are complex, another round of consultation through a meeting with the Staff Side under Joint Secretary (E), DoPT may be held soon. The meeting was held on 27th July, 2012 and the record note of that meeting is at ANNEXURE III.
8.14 Item No.44 — Anomaly in the pay scale/pay band and grade pay of Library Information Assistants
It was informed that the issues raised in the representation received from the Staff Side would be considered after obtaining comments from the Ministry of Culture, as the Nodal Ministry on the subject and Ministry of Human Resource Development.
8.15 Item No.45 — Anomaly in pension of those in receipt of stagnation increments in pre-revised pay scale.
The Staff Side that that persons who were in service as on 1.1.2006 and drawing the maximum of prerevised pay scale plus stagnation increments and had chosen to be fixed in his Revised Pay Band + Grade Pay (which is 40% of the maximum prerevised Pay Scale) have not been given 40% of stagnation increment in their fixation. In their view such persons on retirement after 1.1.2006 have thus been deprived of a stagnation increment in the pre-revised scale and accordingly their Grade Pay should be increased by 4o% of their stagnation increment in the pre-revised scale. The issue relating to availability of re-option subsequent to the issue of Government orders dated 19.03.2012 by the Deptt of Expenditure, relating to grant of one increment in pre-revised pay scale on 1.1.2006 as a onetime measure in respect of all those employees whose next increment fell between 1.2.2006 to 30.6.2006 and then re-fixing them in the revised pay band so as to grant next increment on 1.7.2006, was also raised by the Staff Side.
The Official Side stated that the fitment tables were framed after taking into account the stagnation increments. Nevertheless, it was decided that suitable clarifications on stagnation increment as well as on the issue of options to be granted will be examined.
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