The 6 th Pay Commission has submitted its recommendations. Newspapers published reports that there has been a heavy pay hike for the central government employees. This is not true. In particular, the middle and lower stratum employees have not benefited.

The reduction in the number of grades from 35 to 23 has affected the middle strata employees. Most of the class 4 jobs have shifted to contract systems and lower level jobs like class 2 – 3 and class 4 are over loaded with work. But the pay revision recommended is not commensurate with their work load. Three revenue earning departments — central excise, customs and income tax departments — are not fully staffed. There are 50 other areas of revenue earning which were neglected by the pay commission. Instead of addressing the issue of under-staffing, the Commission has proposed reduction in number of holidays and increase in working hours to increase revenue.

Vast majority of the employees are over burdened with their work but their pay revision is very negligible. The pay increase recommended for the lower and middle strata of employees is less than inflation.

According to the Commission, the ratio of the highest to lowest salaries in government is 1:12. This is not true. The IAS officers get more than a lakh rupees in facilities per month like phone bill, petrol bill, club membership bill and electricity bill. These facilities are not provided to the lower strata of the employees The real ratio is more like 1:25.

If this is the state of affairs of the central government employees then what will be the condition of contract workers in government offices — mainly in railways, airport authorities, and other government offices? Ninety percent of the class IV jobs are given on contract.

I feel the pay commission has not done a serious study of what should be the salary of government employees at the different levels? How does it compare with equivalent jobs in private sector? Why is contract labour being employed to carry out government work? It is the responsibility of the trade unions to raise these issues with the central government.

K.S Bangera
Mumbai