The Central Government may soon implement the 8th Pay Commission. If this happens, it will benefit about 50 lakh central government employees and about 69 lakh pensioners. Meanwhile, the Federation of National Postal Organizations (FNPO) has put forward some important demands before the government, which may lead to major changes in the salaries of the employees.
FNPO has demanded that the fitment factor in the 8th Pay Commission should be increased from 3.0 to 3.25. Apart from this, he has also demanded that the annual increment should be increased from 3 percent to 5 percent. If these demands are accepted, especially the lower and middle level employees will benefit a lot.
For example, currently the basic salary of a peon (level-1 employee) is Rs 18,000. If the fitment factor of 3.25 is applied, their basic salary may increase to around Rs 58,500. This increase is considered quite big.
FNPO has suggested different fitment factors for different levels of employees. For Levels 1 to 5 (Group C and D), a fitment factor of 3.00 is proposed. For levels 6 to 12, it could be between 3.05 and 3.10. For senior officers, i.e. Level 13 to 15, a fitment factor of 3.05 to 3.15 is proposed, and for Level 16 and above, it is proposed between 3.20 and 3.25.
If these proposals are implemented, the basic salary for Level-1 could be Rs 54,000, for Level-5 Rs 87,600, and for Level-10 (Group A entry) around Rs 1.73 lakh. There will also be a significant increase in the salaries of senior IAS level officers. The basic salary of Cabinet Secretary (Level-18) can reach approximately Rs 8.12 lakh. FNPO General Secretary Shivaji Vasireddy said that all these suggestions will be part of the draft of the 8th Pay Commission. A meeting of the NC-JCM is scheduled to be held on February 25, 2026, after which the final recommendations will be submitted to the commission chairperson Ranjana Prakash Desai.
FNPO argues that in the previous pay commission, the fitment factor was not the same at all levels. Therefore, this time he has demanded a multi-level fitment factor based on the Ackroyd formula. This formula takes into account the needs of a family of four, including food, clothing, housing and other essential expenses. If the government accepts these demands, then the 8th Pay Commission can prove to be a big relief package for lakhs of employees.
