1. EDITORIAL POSTAL CRUSADER –MARCH: 2016

   
   

   GET READY FOR INDEFINITE STRIKE FROM 11^th APRIL-2016

   
   

               The 7^th Central Pay Commission has submitted its report to Government of India. The recommendations given by the Pay Commission are most retrograde. The Chairman, Pay Commission did not consider even a single demand of unions. The demand of minimum wage as per Dr. Aykhroyid formula has been negated totally. The National Council JCM demanded minimum wage as Rs. 26000/- but the Pay Commission has recommended only Rs. 18000/-. Other demands  like rate of increment  as 5% , upgraded  pay  scales to the various cadres of Postal Department , 5 promotions , Deletion of Bench Mark  in MACP, Revision of wages  and other service conditions  of GDS ,wage revision of Casual part time  and contingent employees, cashless   hassle free Medical   facility , One time LTC to visit abroad, Removal of ceiling of 5% on compassionate  appointments, Scrapping of New Pension Scheme , 67% of pay as pension  on superannuation  along with other  demands have not been considered .Beside this the Pay Commission has  recommended to abolish  52 existing  allowances and advances like HBA, Festival Advance , TA Advance and Medical Advance. The percentage of HRA has been reduced as 24%, 16%, 8% instead of 30%, 20% & 10%.

   
   

               This Pay Commission is one of the worst Pay Commission ever seen. It has recommended only 14.29% increase like 2nd Pay Commission.

   
   

               The NJCA after  detailed  discussions in  several Meetings with all constituents organizations  of National Council  JCM  has submitted  memorandum and Charter of demands to the Government  of India with the warning  that if the same  is not settled , NJCA (Railway, Defence, Confederation) will  be  forced  to go on indefinite strike  from 11^th April -2016 for which the notice will be served  to Cabinet  Secretary  along with all heads of departments and at all levels on 11^th March, 2016.

   
   

               The Government has set up implementation Cell in Finance Ministry which will work as Secretariat to Empowered Committee headed by Cabinet Secretary for processing and implementation of recommendations of 7^th Pay Commission. First meeting has been taken by the Chairman implementation Cell with NJCA leaders on 19^th February, 2016. NJCA leaders have very clearly told that Employees will go on indefinite strike from 11^th Apeil, 2016.

   
   

               The Confederation of Central Government Employees and Workers and national Federation of Postal Employees along with Postal JCA have endorsed the decision of NJCA.

               All Central leaders will address rallies in the Capital Cities to popularize the strike demands and to mobilize the employees for which campaign programme has been chalked out and circulated among all.

   
   

               29^th March -2016 will be observed as Solidarity day throughout the country by all constituents of NJCA.

   
   

               We as NFPE being on the forefront of all struggles have more responsibility to carry on all agitational programmes more successfully.

   
   

               Keeping in view all the above mentioned facts NFPE appeals to the entirety of Postal, RMS and GDS employees to make all the agitational programmes  cent per cent success and make all efforts to make the indefinite strike  from 11^th April-2016 a historic success to achieve the genuine  and justified demands.

   
   

   We have won on so many occasions and this time also we will win.

   
   

   Unity for struggle and struggle for unity.

   Inquilab Zindabad

   Workers unity Zindabad.

   
   

   
   

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   Posted 13 hours ago by Y. Nagabhushanam

     

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2. FEB

   26

   Minutes of the Meeting of Joint Secretary (IC) with the Members of the Staff-Side of the Standing Committee (National Council-JCM) held on 19.02.2016

   1.A Meeting was held under the chairmanship of Joint Secretary (Implementation Cell), Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, with the Members of the StaffSide of the Standing Committee (National Council-JCM) on 19.2.2016 to discuss the issues raised by the National Joint Council of Action (NJCA) {Joint Consultative Machinery (JCM)} in their letter No. NJC/2015/7th CPC dt. 10.12.2015, addressed to the Cabinet Secretary, regarding their Charter of Demands on the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission.

   The Secretary, Staff-Side of the Standing Committee (National Council- JCM), who is the convener of the NJCA, along with other office bearers attended the meeting. The list of the participants from the Staff-Side is attached at Annexure. 2.

   Welcoming the members of the Staff-Side, JS(IC) mentioned that the meeting has been convened to enable the Staff-Side to bring out their concerns on the recommendations of the 7th CPC in the light of the Charter of Demands made by them in the aforesaid letter of NJCA so that same could be examined in the Implementation Cell and submitted for consideration of the Empowered Committee of Secretaries. He informed the office bearers that before arriving at a decision, the ECoS would also hold separate discussions with the Staff Side.

   2. Commencing the discussions from the Side of the Members of the Staff-Side, Secretary, Staff-Side, Standing Committee (National Council-JCM), explained that they have already placed their Charter of Demands as per the letter of NJCA dated 10.12.2015. He mentioned that the reasons based on which these demands have been made have also been explained therein. He, however, highlighted that the Staff-Side is not at all happy with the recommendations of the 7th CPC and, in fact, no section of the employees is satisfied, as the Commission has recommended a minimal pay increase as compared to the previous Pay Commissions. He mentioned that the Staff-Side does not agree with the minimum pay of Rs. 18000 and the reason as to why the methodology adopted by the 7th CPC to arrive at this figure is not correct has been explained in their letter dated 10.12.2015. He stated that Staff-Side demands enhancement of the minimum pay to Rs. 26000 and the reasons in support of this have been given in their aforesaid letter. He further stated that an amicable and mutually negotiated settlement of these demands is necessary as non-acceptance would further cause resentment in the employees. He informed that Staff-Side has already made their stand clear to go on strike from 11th April, 2016 if their demands are not considered and no amicable settlement happens.

   3. Thereafter, the other members of the Staff-Side also expressed their arguments for acceptance of these demands and all of them emphasised that the minimum pay needs to be revised. Consequently, the fitment multiple of 2.57 would also need commensurate change. The leader of the Staff-Side explained that the office bearers who were present in the meeting represent various sections of Central Government employees including railways, defence civilians, postal employees etc., the number of which is around Rs. 32 lakhs. 

   4. The Staff-Side brought out their concerns on all the 26 demands included in the Charter of Demands and all the points brought out by them in the letter of the NJAC dt. 10.12.2015 were reiterated. However, following issues in support of their demands were highlighted :-

    (i) Minimum Pay needs to be revised to Rs. 26000 p.m. and the minimum pay of Rs. 18000 p.m. as recommended by 7th CPC is not acceptable. This would require upward revision in the fitment multiple of 2.57 and change in the Pay Matrix. It was argued that if the 10% of the pay for NPS contribution and the recommended increase in the CGEIS contribution are taken into account, there would be a drop in the take-home salary of the employees at the minimum pay of Rs.18000.

    (ii) Central Government employees need to be excluded from the National Pension Scheme (NPS), which has been a long pending demand of the StaffSide. The Staff-Side stated that the Pension Fund which has been created under NPS to generate annuity for employees, would not ensure reasonable pension. Rather it is quite likely that it may generate negative returns because of the dismal performance of the financial market to which the fund is invested, leaving the employees without any reasonable social security benefit.

   (iii) The 7th CPC has recommended abolition of 52 allowances without properly appreciating the justification of these allowances. The example of break-down allowance in case of Railway employees was given, stating that this allowances is given so that the concerned employees take up the necessary follow up action in the case of breakdown on an urgent basis and therefore its withdrawal is not justified in operational interests of Railways.

    (iv) The withdrawal of advances, especially LTC, TA, Medical, National Calamity Advance, was not justified. It was argued that these advances are recovered from the employees and, therefore, the same should be retained.

   (v) In regard to enhancement of contribution under Group Insurance Scheme, it was argued that increase in the contribution from the employees was not justified and if the same is to be raised, the Government should bear the insurance premium.

   (vi) The post of LDC should be upgraded to UDC and as part of delayering, Grade Pays of Rs. 1900, Rs. 2400 and Rs. 4600 should be abolished and merged with the next higher Grades.

    (vii) The rate of increment needs to be raised from 3% to 5% because pay is revised in the Central Government after 10 years. It was mentioned that in the PSUs the pay is revised after 5 years and the rate of increment is also higher.

    (viii) Two increments in the feeder post may be granted as promotion benefit.

    (ix) Fixed medical allowance for pensioners who are not covered by CGHS and REHS needs to be increased from Rs. 500 p.m. to Rs. 2000 p.m.

    (x) The recommendation regarding grant of only 80% of salary for the second year of Child Care Leave need not be accepted and the existing provisions may be retained

    (xi) It was also demanded that though the D/o Expenditure has sought the comments of the Ministries/Department on the issues pertaining to them after consulting the Staff Associations, administrative Departments are not inviting the Staff associations for discussions.

   5. After detailed explanation by the Staff-Side on all the demands included in the Charter of Demands, JS(IC), while concluding the discussions, assured the Staff-Side that the concerns and demands made by them would be placed before the Empowered Committee of Secretaries for consideration after examining the same in the light of the recommendations of the Commission. He also mentioned that in cases where the comments of the administrative Ministries/ Departments would be necessary, e.g., the case of break-down allowance pertaining to Ministry of Railways, the same would be considered before the issues are placed before the E-CoS. As regards the issue raised that the administrative Departments are not inviting staff associations for discussions, JS(IC) mentioned that the Departments have to formulate the views keeping in view the representations made by the Staff Associations.

   
   

    6. Thereafter, the meeting ended with thanks to the chair.