Ministries and departments can raise afresh salary hike demand

Afresh the demand for pay revision can be raised by Ministries and departments, if they find that some of the justified suggestions made by the staff associations were not accepted by the 7th Central Pay Commission. Such demands could be submitted to the Implementation Cell (IC), created in the Finance Ministry, to work as Secretariat for the Empowered Committee of Secretaries headed by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha. The CoS will screen the recommendations of the Commission and firm up the conclusions for approval of the Cabinet.

Minutes of the of first meeting of the IC has said that If a representation was made by a Staff Association before the 7th Central Pay Commission and the Commission after due diligence has not accepted the demand made there in, the same matter normally not be considered at the stage. However, if departments consider that the issues are of such nature that they require consideration at this stage also, then they may give their comments with full justifications to the IC.

In order to process the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission, the government has set up a 13-member Empowered CoS headed by Cabinet Secretary which functions as a Screening Committee to screen the recommendations of the Commission after taking into account the views of the concerned stakeholders. The final recommendations of the Empowered Committee of Secretaries will be submitted for approval of the Cabinet.

The 7th Pay Commission has recommended a 23.55 percent hike in salary, allowances and pension involving an additional burden of Rs 1.02 lakh crore for the government, of which increase in salary would be Rs 39,100 crore, allowances Rs 29,300 crore and pension Rs 33,700 crore. The new pay scales, subject to acceptance by the government, will come into effect from January 1, 2016.