POSTAL JOINT COUNCIL OF ACTION
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF POSTAL EMPLOYEES
FEDERATION OF NATIONAL POSTAL ORGANISATIONS
PF-No.PF-PJCA/2016 Dated:16th September, 2016
To
The Secretary,
Department of Post,
Sansad Marg,
Dak Bhawan,
NOTE ON ALLOWANCES
1. The recommendation of the 7th CPC
that Tough Location Allowance will not be admissible alongiwth Special
Duty Allowance (SDA) should not be accepted by Government.
In para 8.10.62 of the 7th CPC the following recommendation is made –
Para 8.10.62 - There are some “Special Compensatory” Allowances
that are based on geographical location and are meant to compensate for
hardship faced by employees posted in such places. It is proposed to
subsume these allowances under the umbrella of “Tough Location Allowance”.
In Para 8.10.63 the Commission made the following recommendations –
“The Tough Location Allowance will, however, not be admissible along with Special Duty Allowance”.
At present, special allowances are paid in the following places along with Special Duty Allowance.
(a) Assam and North Easter Region – Special Compensatory allowance paid alongwith Special Duty Allowance.
(b) Andaman & Nicobar Islands – Special Compensatory Allowance paid alongwith Island Special Duty Allowance.
(c) Tripura Special Compensatory Remote Locality Allowance paid along with Special Duty Allowance.
Demand of the staff side:
In all the above cases “Tough Location Allowance” may be paid alongwith
Special Duty Allowance. Withdrawal of any of the above allowances, will
result in substantial financial loss to the employees. An existing
benefit should not be withdrawn, under the pretext of 7th CPC’s unjustified recommendation.
2. Special Duty Allowance in N. E. Region should be uniform for all at 30%.
In Para 8.17.115 the 7th CPC made the following observation –
“Special Duty Allowance
(SDA) is granted to attract civilian employees to seek posting in North
Eastern and Ladhak Regions, in view of the risk and hardship prevailing
in these areas. Currently the rate of SDA is 37.5% of Basic Pay for AIS
officers and 12.5% of Basic Pay for other employees.
In para 8.17.118 the Commission made the following recommendation –
“Accordingly in line with
our general approach of rationalizing the percentage based allowance by
a factor of 0.8, SDA for AIS officers should be paid at the rate of 30%
of Basic Pay and for other civilian employees at the rate of 10% of
their basic pay.
Demand of the staff side:
The discrimination between AIS officers and other civilian employees in
payment of SDA should not be there and all may be paid at the same rate
i.e. at the rate of 30% recommended by the pay commission for AIS
officers.
3. Allowances which are not reported to 7th CPC by the concerned departments.
In para 8.2.5 of the report, the 7th CPC made the following recommendation.
“We have considered all
allowances reported to us, in this chapter. Any allowances, not
mentioned here (And hence not reported to the commission) shall cease to
exist immediately. In case there is any demand or requirement for
continuation of an existing allowance which has not been deliberated
upon or covered in this report, it should be re-notified by the ministry
concerned after obtaining due approval of Ministry of Finance and
should be put in the public domain”.
Demand of the Staff Side: The
above recommendation should not be accepted, as it amounts to
penalizing employees for the fault of the departmental heads. The
following allowance which are not reported to the commission should be
retained and enhanced.
(a) PO & RMS Accountants’ Special allowance
Postal Assistants and
Sorting Assistants of Postal department are posted as PO & RMS
Accountant after passing a qualifying examination. Taking into
consideration their work which require much skill, application of mind,
and knowledge of all rulings, Special allowance is granted to them. This
allowance may beretained and enhanced.
4. Savings Bank Allowance in Post offices:
In Department of Posts,
Savings Bank Allowance is granted to Postal Assistant working in Post
Office Savings Bank (POSB) for shouldering strenuous and complicated
nature of Savings Bank work. Postal Assistants need to qualify an
aptitude test to get this allowance. The current rates are Rs.300/- per
month for fully engaged staff and Rs.150/- per month for partially
engaged staff.
In para 8.10.80 of the report, the Commission recommended as follows:
“Savings Bank Allowance
be abolished as the justification provided by the concerned ministry for
the grant of this allowance is not sufficient for their continuance”.
Demand of staff side: Savings Bank Allowance should be retained and enhanced in view of the justification given above.
5. Special Compensatory (Hill area) Allowance
In para 8.10.50 of the report, the 7th CPC
made the following recommendation – “There is hardly any hardship
involved at altitude of 1000 meters (more than 3000 feets) above sea
level. Hence, it is recommended that the allowance should be abolished.
Demand of the staff side:
The above observation of the commission is not based on ground
realities but based on presumption. Hence the above allowance should be
retained and enhanced.
6. Family Planning Allowance
In para 8.17.50 of the report, the 7th CPC
made the following recommendations – “The commission recognizes the
fact that most of the benefit related to children viz. children
Education Allowance, maternity Leave, LTC etc. are available for two
children only. Moreover, the level of awareness regarding appropriate
family size has also gone up among Government servants. Hence, a
separate allowance aimed towards population control is not required.
Accordingly, it is recommended that family planning allowance should be
abolished.
Demand of the staff side: The above allowance may be retained. In any case, the Family Planning Allowance already granted should not be withdrawn.
7. Fixed Medical Allowance
In Para 8.17.51 of the report the 7th CPC observed as follows –
It is granted to
pensioners for meeting expenditure on day to day medical expenses that
do not require hospitalization, presently payable at the rate of
Rs.500/- p.m. Demands have been received to increase the rate of this
allowance to Rs.2000/-.
In para 8.17.52 the Commission made the following recommendation-
The Commission notes that
the allowance was enhanced from Rs.300/- to Rs.500/- p.m from
19.11.2014. As such, further enhancement of this allowance is not
recommended.
Demand of the staff side: in the memorandum submitted to 7th CPC,
the staff side had elaborately explained the justification for
enhancing the FMA to Rs.2000/-. As everybody knows, old age persons are
suffering from many deceases and as the cost of medicines has increased
manifold the expenditure on outdoor medical treatment has also gone up
like anything. With Rs.500/- p.m no pensioner can meet the medical
expenses. The commission has not conducted any scientific and realistic
study, but simply rejected the demand stating that it is enhanced
recently. It is once again requested that the FMA for pensioners may be
enhanced to Rs.2000/- p.m as in the case of EPF pensioners.
8. Cash handling Allowance
In para 8.10.9 of the report, the 7th CPC observed as follows: -
It is paid to cashiers working in Central Government departments, for handling of cash. The current rates are –
Average amount of monthly cash disbursed
|
Rate per month
|
Below Rs. 50000
|
230
|
Over Rs. 50000 upto 200000
|
450
|
Over 200000 upto 500000
|
600
|
Over 500000 upto 1000000
|
750
|
Above 1000000
|
900
|
Again in Para 8.10.57 the commission observed as follows: -
Treasury Allowance –
This allowance is granted in Department of Posts to Treasurers and
Assistant Treasurers working in Head Post offices and large Sub Post
offices for handling cash. The present rate is Rs.360/- p.m for handling
cash upto Rs.2 lakhs and Rs.480/- p.m. for handling cash more than Rs.2
lakhs.
In para 8.10.80 the commission made the following recommendation
Assistant cashier Allowance, Cash handling allowance and Treasury Allowance –
With technological
advances and growing emphasis on banking, these allowances have lost
their relevance. Hence it is recommended that not only all salary be
paid through banks, but Ministries/departments should work out plans to
first minimize and then eliminate all sorts of cash transactions.
Demand of the staff Side:
The recommendation of the Commission is not realistic. Till that time
the cash transactions are eliminated the Cash handling allowance and
Treasury allowance should be retained and enhanced.
9. Cycle Allowance
In para 8.15.10 of the report the 7th CPC made the following observation.
“It is paid where the
duties attached to the post require extensive use of bicycle and the
official concerned has to use and maintain his own cycle for official journeys. The existing rate is Rs.90 p.m.
In para 15.11 the commission made the following recommendation –
“The Commission is of the
view that amount of this allowance is megre and the allowance itself is
outdated. Hence it should be abolished.
Demand of the staff side:
This allowance is at present given to more than 40000 Postmen staff and
about 50000 GraminDakSevaks of the Postal Department. When the
commission itself observed that an official using his own bicycle for
official duties has to incur expenditure for maintenance of the cycle.
When the maintenance work is done for performing official duties, the
amount should be reimbursed to the official, whether the amount is megre
or not – Hence this allowance should be retained and enhanced.
10. Overtime Allowance
In para 8.17.97 of the report the 7th CPC made the following recommendations -
Hence while this
commission shares the sentiments of the predecessors that Government
offices need to increase productivity and efficiency and recommended
that OTA should be abolished (except for operational staff and industrial employees who are governed by statutory provisions) at
the same time it is also recommended that in case the Government
decides to continue with OTA for these categories of staff for which it
is not statutory requirement, then the rate of OTA for such staff should
be increased by 50% from their current levels.
Demand of the staff side:
OTA rates are revised in the year 1987. For the last 30 years no
revision has taken place. Eventhough an arbitration award for
enhancement is given, the same is also pending implementation for the
last 20 years. After 7th CPC revision, one hour wage of an
MTS is Rs. 75/- where as rate for one hour OTA is Rs.15.85 only!!! Hence
it is requested that overtime allowance wherever sanctioned must be
based upon the actual basic pay of the entitled employee.
11. Dress Allowance
(a) Para 08.16.14 may be referred. The 7th CPC
recommended four slabs of Dress allowance per year for various
categories of employees. In the Department of Posts there are about
75000 Postmen and Multi-Tasking staff wearing uniform. Their name is not mentioned in the category of employees shown in the table. Even
if it is included in the other categories of staff, then the Dress
Allowance per year will be Rs.5000/- only. At present the Postmen/MTS
staff of Postal department are getting more than Rs.5000/- for uniform
plus washing allowance. Hence it should be made clear under which
category the Postmen and MTS staff of Postal department are to be
included, in the dress allowance table recommended by the 7th CPC. These official may be granted Rs.10000/- as dress allowance.
(b) It is further demanded that the Dress Allowance ceiling to be raised to Rs.32400 per annum.
(c) If cloth for dress is provided stitching charges should be revised reasonably.
(d) Washing allowance should be increased from Rs.90/- to 150/- Rupees per month.
Yours faithfully
(D. Theagarajan) (R.N. Parashar)
Secretary General FNPO Secretary General
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