Important news is coming for Central Government employees and pensioners regarding 8th Pay Commission. The meeting of the National Council (Staff Side), Joint Consultative Machinery (NC-JCM) was held on Wednesday (February 25, 2026) in the national capital Delhi. Several important issues were discussed, including increasing the family unit from three to five, guaranteeing at least five promotions for employees, increasing annual increments and re-implementing the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) under the 8th Pay Commission (8th CPC).
Other topics discussed included framing of answers to 18 CPC questions, increasing Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) charges from ₹1,000 to ₹20,000 per month for non-CGHS cities and including allowance for essential services like internet.
Employees’ demands will be sent to JCM
Representatives of different employee organizations including Defence, Railways, Postal Services, Income Tax Department and Accounts and Audit attended the meeting held on Wednesday. “Attempts were made to build consensus on minimum basic pay, promotion policy, annual increment and other issues,” ET quoted C. Sreekumar, secretary general of All India Defense Employees Federation (AIDEF), as saying. In the coming days, different employee associations will submit their demands related to the 8th Pay Commission to the JCM. In the next 10 to 15 days, all the associations will prepare a common memorandum.
What is JCM?
JCM (Joint Consultative Machinery) is an official forum for dialogue between the Government of India and the employees. Therefore, its important role under the 8th Pay Commission cannot be underestimated. Under this framework, the staff side of JCM is drafting the demands of the employees for the 8th Pay Commission and presenting them to the government.
Now a meeting has been fixed on March 10. Manjit Singh Patel, representing the Central Government Employees Confederation in the NC-JCM, said that once the JCM prepares a common memorandum outlining the demands of the employees, it will be submitted to the 8th Pay Commission Chairperson Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai. The report also said that a meeting has been scheduled on March 10 to discuss the common memorandum. Then it can be sent to the 8th Commission in the next one to two weeks. Issues like minimum pay, fitment factor and pensioners are in focus in the NC-JCM meeting.
