The recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission has been implemented for PSU bank employees and the employees of the Bureau of Indian Standards or BIS. The move will see a hike in the Dearness Allowance or the DA of the bank employees. On the other hand, over 10 lakh railway employees are holding a protest across the nation today. The protest has been called by the National Joint Council of Action or the NJCA. Although railway services would not be affected, all employees of Indian Railways will wear black bands on their arms in a mark of protest over what is being seen as discrepancies in implementing the recommendations.
The DA of the bank officials and employees will now be at par with the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission. The order concerns only the DA to be paid for the months of February, March, and April of this year. The Indian Banks’ Association or the IBA had stated on February 1 that all bank employees and officials should get 46.9 percent of their pay as the DA. The employees of the BSI, too, are expected to benefit from this decision. The BSI is an autonomous organization and was set up in 1987. We had previously reported how autonomous institutions were not bound to abide by the decisions of the central government.
The decision to hike the pay packages was announced by the Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan. Reports suggest that 1,500 employees and pensioners of BIS will benefit from the move. Earlier, the 7th Pay Commission had recommended a 14.27 percent hike in basic pay, besides proposing a 138.71 percent hike in Housing Rental Allowance or HRA as well as a 49.79 percent hike for other allowances.
7th Pay Commission: Railway Employees Ignored?
The Indian Railways, the largest employer in the world, has not been a beneficiary of the pay hikes as of now. The NJCA convenor Shiv Gopal Mishra spoke about the planned nation-wide protests as well. The NJCA has been raising the pay hike demands of government employees before the Committee of Secretaries for a number of months now. Faced with no positive reply, the NJCA stated that the protests were the only avenue open for them. The 7th Pay Commission report was tabled by Justice A.K. Mathur in July last year, but no final word has been received on the implementation front till now. The NJCA convenor stated that if the recommendations were implemented from April 1, the railway employees must also receive the hiked allowances from the same date, besides the arrears. The total arrears pending are from January 1, 2016, according to the NJCA.
When implemented, the 7th Pay Commission’s recommendations are likely to affect 47 lakh central government employees and 53 lakh pensioners. This figure includes 14 lakh serving employees and 18 lakh pensioners in the defence forces. Bear in mind that the implementations in poll-bound states may not be implemented just now. You can view more details on the 7th Pay Commission here.
