Important demands related to the 8th Pay Commission have come to light regarding the salary structure of central government employees and pensioners. The staff side of the National Council Joint Consultative Machinery (NC-JCM) has made many big proposals in its common memorandum, among which the demand to increase the minimum basic salary from Rs 18 thousand to Rs 69 thousand is prominent.
According to the memorandum, the existing salary structure needs to be revised in line with inflation and rising cost of living. Based on this, it has been suggested to keep the fitment factor at 3.83, due to which a big increase in both salary and pension can be possible.
NC-JCM has also proposed in its recommendations that the annual increment given to central employees should be increased from 3 percent to 6 percent. The organization says that the current rate is not sufficient to keep up with rising inflation and this affects the real income of employees.
Major changes have also been demanded regarding pension. The proposal states that the pension of retired employees should be 67 percent of the final salary, while the family pension should be fixed at 50 percent. Apart from this, the demand for restoration of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) has also been reiterated.
The memorandum also talks about comprehensive reform in the salary structure. It has been suggested to reduce the existing 18 pay levels and merge them into 7 simple categories to make the pay system more transparent and simple. Along with this, there is also a demand to increase HRA i.e. house rent allowance to a minimum of 30 percent.
Special provisions have also been recommended for women employees. In this, it has been proposed to increase maternity leave from 180 days to 240 days and increase other family facilities including paternity leave.
According to experts, if all these proposals are accepted then there may be a big change in the income of central employees and pensioners. However, the final decision will depend on the recommendations of the government and the 8th Pay Commission.
At present, this demand letter has been submitted to the government by the employee organizations and the process of considering it is likely to continue further.
