The concept of constitution of Pay Commissions for revision of pay scales of Central Government employees is peculiar to India
and no other country in the world is following this pattern of specified
periodical revisions as an established mode of such revisions.
The
Government of India constitutes, as a matter of convention, Pay Commissions
every ten years to review and make recommendations on the wage structure of Central Government employees
including Defence personnel and Railway employees and the Pensioners. The Pay
Commission, depending on the terms of reference, shall examine various aspects
such as pay and allowances, retirement and death benefits, conditions of
service, promotion policy
and such other related matters and submits
its recommendationsto the Government, who
will take the
final decision as to its implementation, which
may be full or partial or amended of modified. The Chairman and Members of the Pay Commission shall
be nominated by the Government. The so far followed practice for constitution
of the Pay Commission is at periodical intervals of 10 years as is seen from the constitution of such
Commissions in the past. It is not mandatory for the Government to constitute
the Pay Commission as is seen from the fact that inspite of the Employees’ demanding
for constitution of Pay Commission during the year 2003, the Vajpayee
government has turned down their demand.
Prior
to the constitution of the First Pay Commission in 1946, the 1934 pay scales were
continued.
First Pay Commission
The
First Pay Commission was constituted in May 1946 under the Chairmanship of Sri
Srinivasa Varadachariar. Taking inspiration from the Islington Commission
Report of 1912 under the Chairmanship of Lord Islington, the concept of living wages meaning that in no case an employee’s wage be less
than the living wage, was taken into consideration in formulating the recommendations of the First Pay Commission. The Commission has fixed
Rs.55, of which Basic Pay was Rs.30 and DA Rs.25 as the minimum wage. Therecommendations were accepted by the Government.
Second Pay Commission
The
Second Pay Commission was set up in August 1957 under the Chairmanship of
Justice Jagannath Das and the Commission took two years to finalize the report.
One of therecommendations of
the Commission was that the pay structure and working environment of the
government employees should be crafted in such a way as to ensure efficient
functioning of the
system by recruiting persons with a minimum
qualification, which was earlier not followed. The Commission recommended the minimum wage at
Rs.80 (Basic Pay Rs.70 and DA Rs.10) per month and reduced the multiple numbers
of pay scales.
Third Pay Commission
The
Third Pay Commission was set up in April 1970 under the Chairmanship of Justice
Raghuvir Dayal. It went beyond the idea of minimum subsistence and added three
concepts of inclusiveness, comprehensibility and adequacy for pay structure to
be sound in nature as to be attractive to the employees, which, the Commission
felt that it would improve the efficiency of functioning of the Government
machinery. It recommended theminimum wage at Rs.185 per month and the Government raised it to
Rs.196. Pay fixation formula was made more liberal. The Commission gave its
report in March 1973.
Fourth Pay Commission
The
Fourth Pay Commission was constituted in March 1983 under the Chairmanship of
Sri P.N.Singhal. It recommended for creating permanent machinery as part of the
administration to undertake periodical review of pay and allowances of the
employees. However, it was never implemented by the Government. It recommended
for minimum wage of Rs.750. It took four years and submitted the report
in three phases. The report was implemented with effect from 01.01.1986.
Fifth Pay Commission
The
Fifth Pay Commission was set up in 1994 under the Chairmanship of Justice
Ratnavel Pandian. The Commission recommended for fixing the minimum wage at
Rs.2550 per month, to further reduce the number of pay scales from
51 to 34 and to slash the government workforce by about 30% with grant of
salary hikes to the retained employees. It took 4 years for the Commission to
submit its report. During this period, the Government of India was in take-off
mode with the concept of LPG (Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation)
in its economic reforms, for which it has to look to theWorld Bank and IMF and thus the World Bank has
opened its mouth with criticism on the after effects of the Pay Commission recommendations on the Indian economy.
Sixth Pay Commission
Sixth
Pay Commission was set up in July 2006 under the Chairmanship of Justice
B.N.Srikrishna with a time frame of 18 months. While formulating pay scales with
upward revision and fixing the minimum salary at entry level at Rs.6660 (Basic
Pay Rs.4860 and Grade Pay Rs.1800) and maximum at Rs.80000 at Secretary level,
the Commission mainly focussed on removing ambiguity in respect of the existing pay scales and,
introducing the idea of ‘Pay Bands’, while reducing the number of pay scales. It recommended for removal of Group – D
cadre.
Seventh Pay Commission
The
Government of India constituted Seventh Pay Commission on September 25, 2013 and the recommendations of the Commission are likely to be implemented with
effect from 1st January
2016.While hailing the decision of the Government, the Employees’ Unions have
demanded for implementation of the Commission’s recommendations to take effect from 1st January 2011 in the same pattern as with the
conventional periodical wagerevisions for
every 5 years in Public Sector Undertakings. The Commission shall study the
structure of salaries of different cadres of the 50 lakh Central
Government employees and 30 lakh Pensioners and recommend for upward revision
of scales and allied service matters.Constitution of the Chairman and Members
of the Commission shall be taken up in due course of time.
During
the year 2008, the three wings of defence forces have requested the Central
Government to rectify the discrepancies in the pay scales of
defence personnel. They felt that since the Defence Forces are expected even to
sacrifice their lives in their normal duties, there should be some variance in
the pay scales of Civilian employees and Defence personnel. Similarly, they demanded that the proviso of ‘one rank – one salary’ and ‘one rank – one pension’ should be implemented in
the defence forces. After passing though different phases, in the year 2009,
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh informed the Defence department that a special
Pay Commission would be constituted for Defence Personnel and a strong
belief has emerged that a separate Pay Commission will be constituted in the
background of the notification for 7th Pay Commission. But, the Chief of Air Staff has
expressed in his current letter to the Defence Minister that there is no need
for a separate Pay Commission for Defence Forces and that it would be enough if
reasonable representation of the Defence cadres is provided in the 7th Pay Commission.
Comments
Constitution
of the 7th Pay
Commission is not devoid of any criticism. Media feels its timing of the
constitution of the Pay Commission is so announced that it is a ‘caret and stick’ mode of bait to the Government employees, including
Defence personnel and Railway employees in the background of the approaching
Lok Sabha elections next year and elections to the State
Assemblies of 5 states in November this year.
Industry
circles felt that there is every possibility of increased rate of inflation
apart from the additional financial burden on the government with notification of
7th Pay Commission. ASSOCHAM Secretary
General Mr. D.S.Rawat dubbed that if the Central Government substantially
increases the salaries, the funds at the disposal of
the Government would deplete and the pressure of inflation increases. He
further stated that by the time therecommendations of the 7th Pay Commission are implemented by January 2016, the
financial burden in the implementation of the Food Security Act and Employment
Guarantee Scheme would also increase. He questioned whether it is necessary for
the Government to perennially go on fighting with Fiscal Deficit. PHD Chamber of Commerce President Mr. Suman Jyothi
Khaitan felt that the Government should concentrate on implementation of
reforms for improving the financial segment and management of distribution
sector and increasing the income status; and further felt that without
providing the needed infrastructure and distribution sectors, economy would
ultimately lead to severe inflation.
source :7th-paycommission.com/
