FREEZING OF DEARNESS ALLOWANCE TO CENTRAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES AND DEARNESS RELIEF TO CENTRAL GOVERNMENT PENSIONERS AT CURRENT RATES TILL JULY, 2021.
No.
Confd./DA-2020
Dated :24.04.2020
To
The
Cabinet Secretary,
Government
of India,
Cabinet
Secretariat
Rashtrapati
Bhawan,
New
Delhi
Sub:
Freezing of dearness allowance to Central Government employees and Dearness
relief to Central Government pensioners at current rate till July, 2021.
Dear
Sir,
We
solicit your kind reference to the O.M. No. 1/12020-E.I (B) dated 23rd April,
2020issued by the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance on
the above subject in view of the crisis arising out of the pandemic Covid-19.
The
Central Government employees throughout the country noted the contents of the
above cited O.M. with surprise and anguish. As you are aware, the
Central Government employees responded admirably the call of the Honourable
Prime Minister to donate one day’s salary to the Prime Minister’s Relief fund
to enable the Government to meet out the financial exigencies arising out of
the pandemic. This apart, both the employees and pensioners have
contributed immensely to the Prime Minister’s and respective Chief Minister’s
public relief funds voluntarily.
It
was unfortunate that the Government did not cause any consultation with the
standing committee of the JCM, the negotiating forum of the Central Government
employees and took an arbitrary and unilateral decision on a vital matter like
freezing the wages.
The
Government are aware that quite a number of employees are deployed and
consequently are involved in various governmental activities and services meant
to combat the spread of the pandemic Covid-19 especially of those departments
declared as emergency services viz, health, postal, defence, railways etc.
endangering even their life. Not taking into confidence the
employees’ representatives before taking decision to impose a mandatory freeze
of dearness allowance is in utter disregard to the norms and procedure followed
by the previous Governments when such situation had arisen. Besides
at no previous occasion, the Government of India had resorted to impounding the
dues arbitrarily. We, therefore, oppose the arbitrary decision of
the Government to impound the DA .
Further,
we are to inform you that the decision to deny the payment of the freezed
amount even after overcoming the crisis is totally unacceptable to the
employees. We are
pained
to note that the Government has been shifting the financial burden of the
crisis on to the employees and workers, when in fact they require the financial
assistance from the Government to face the crisis caused by the pandemic.
In
the circumstance, we request you to direct the Ministry of Finance to rescind
the decision to impound the DA and withdraw the O.M., as the Government has no
legal or moral authority to take such a decision. The refusal
to accede to this demand will only pave the way for an avoidable confrontation
and agitation.
Thanking
you,
Yours Sincerely,
(R
N Parashar)
Secretary
General
Copy to:
The Secretary, Personnel,
Department of personnel and Training,
Government of India,
North Block, New Delhi. 110 001