EPFO to raise retirement age of organised sector workers

EPFO’s apex decision making body the Central Board of Trustee (CBT) will consider a proposal to raise the retirement age of organised sector workers to 60 years for its pension at a meeting scheduled for Wednesday.

Besides, the CBT in this meeting will also deliberate on a proposal to withdraw two years bonus under the pension scheme provided to subscribers after rendering 20 years of pensionable service.

These proposals are included in the agenda for the CBT meeting scheduled on February 5 to be chaired by Labour Minister Oscar Fernandes.

At present, under the Employees’ Pension Scheme(EPS-95), the subscribers of Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) cease to be a member of the pension scheme and can apply for fixation of his/her pension. Thus, he cannot contribute to the scheme after the age of 58 years.

However, there is no age bar for contributing to the Employees’ Provident Fund Scheme (EFF) 1952 and Employees’ Deposit Linked Insurance (EDLI) Scheme 1976 run by the EPFO, an official said.

The Finance Ministry in its memorandum to Labour Ministry has proposed these amendments in the EPS-95 after giving its concurrence for providing a minimum entitlement of Rs 1,000 minimum monthly pension under the scheme.

The Finance Ministry is of the view that raising the retirement age for this purpose will help subscribers accumulate a bigger corpus while delaying the pay-out by two years.

The proposal, if approved, would immediately benefit 27 lakh pensioners. At present, there are about 44 lakh pensioners. Of this 27 lakh, including 5 lakh widows, get less than Rs 1,000 a month.

The Finance Ministry has already agreed to pay Rs 1,217 crore during 2014-15 for ensuring minimum pension of Rs 1,000 per month under the pension scheme.

During the meeting the, CBT is likely to approve the proposal for amending the the EPS-95, EPF and EDLI scheme to enhance the maximum wage ceiling to Rs 15,000 per month from Rs 6,500 per month.

At present, EPFO does not cover organised workers under its social sector schemes whose basic wages including basic pay and dearness allowance exceed Rs 6,500 at the time of joining of service.

Besides other things, the trustees will also consider the proposal for computing the pensionable salary. It is proposed to calculate pensionable salary on the basis of average of salary last 60 months instead of 12 months presently.

The pensionable salary is used for fixing pension of the EPFO subscribers after attaining the age of 58 years.

Source- Economic times

DA for Bank Employees increased to 99.90% from February 2014

Indian Banks’ Association

HR & INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

No.CIR/HR&IR/76/D/2013-14/8778

1st February, 2014

All Members of the Association
(Designated Officers)

Dear Sirs,

Dearness Allowance for Workmen and Officer Employees in banks for the months of February, March & April 2014 under IX BPS/Joint Note dt. 27.4.10 

The confirmed All India Average Consumer Price Index Numbers for Industrial Workers (Base1960-100) for the quarter ended December 2013 are as follows:

Oct 2013 – 5501.04

Nov 2013 – 5546.69

Dec 2013 – 5455.39

Consequently, dearness allowance to employees is payable for 666 slabs for the period February, March & April 2014 i.e. an increase of 25 slabs over the current level.

In terms of clause 7 of the 9th Bipartite Settlement dated 27.04.2010 and clause 3 of the Joint Note dated 27.04.2010, the rate of dearness allowance payable to workmen and officer employees for the months of February, March & April 2014 shall be 99.90% of ‘pay’. While arriving at dearness allowance payable, decimals from third place may please be ignored.

We advise banks to pay the difference between the old and revised salary and allowances to officers on an ad hoc basis, pending amendments to Officers’ Service Regulations.

Yours faithfully,

K. Unnikrishnan

Deputy Chief Executive

Source:http://www.iba.org.in/Documents/DA.pdf

LDC-UDC ISSUE-YET ANOTHER LETTER FROM DEPARTMENT OF EXPENDITURE

Dear friends,

I give hereunder the copy of the letter received from the Department of Expenditure on the issue of upgradation of grade pay of LDC & UDC. A similar letter addressed to FA, DoPT with copy to Shri M Krishnan, Secretary General Confederation has been posted in this web site on 30th November. Association’s view was that the LDC & UDC are common cadres and spread over the entire Government of India offices and as such upgradation in a particular Department or some Departments through cadre restructuring is not possible. As such with the support of Confederation our Association had decided to file a case so that the upgradation of Grade Pay to these cadres may get w.e.f. 1.1.2006. And the preparation for filing the case is under progress and we expect the same would be filed by 1st week of March.

TKR Pillai

General Secretary

Mob. 09425372172

No. 58(2)/E.III (B)/2013

Ministry of Finance

Department of Expenditure

E.III-(B) Branch

New Delhi, the 23 January, 2014

OFFICE MEMORANDUM

Subject: Forwarding of letter No. 4/GS/2013 dated 14/10/2013 from All India Association of Administrative Staff.

The undersigned is directed to forward herewith letter No. 4/GS/2013 dated 14/1-/2-13 from Shri TKR Pillai regarding upgradation of Grade Pay of LDC and UDC in administrative branch of Government of India offices and to state that this Department does not consider the representations received from individuals or association and they are forwarded to the concerned administrative ministry/departments. The administrative Ministry/Department concerned is required to examine the representations and if merit is found, the same may be forwarded to this Department for consideration in the form of a proposal, through IFD.

Sd/

(Manoj Kumar)

Under Secretary to the Government of India

To

FA (DoPT),
Department of Personal & Training,
North Block,

Copy to:
Shri TKR Pillai, NSSO (FOD), Hall No. 201 & 205, Vijay Stumbh, Zone I, Maharana Pratap Nagar, Bhopal.

Source-http://aiamshq.blogspot.in/2014/02/ldc-udc-issue-yet-another-letter-from.html