Minutes of Standing Committee Meeting held on 3.5.2017 between NC JCM and Official Side - DoPT
Minutes of the meeting of the
Standing Committee held between the staff-side, National Council (Joint
Consultative Machinery) and offical-side under the Chairmanship of
Secretary(P) at 3.00 P.M. on 03.05.2017
MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF
THE STANDING COMMITTEE HELD BETWEEN THE STAFF-SIDE, NATIONAL COUNCIL
(JOINT CONSULTATIVE MACHINERY) AND THE OFFICIAL-SIDE UNDER THE
CHAIRMANSHIP OF SECRETARY(P) AT 3.00 P.M. ON 03.05.2017
The meeting of the Standing Committee of
the National Council (JCM) was held at 3.00 p.m. on 03.05.2017 under
the Chairmanship of Secretary (P) at Room No. 119, North Block, New
Delhi. The list of participants is at Annexure.
2. In his introductory comments,
Secretary(Personnel) while welcoming the participants, mentioned that
the agenda for the meeting included the action taken statement on the 31
items discussed in the last meeting held on 25.10.2016 and 26
additional items received from the Staff Side.
3. (i) In his opening remarks,
Secretary, Staff-Side thanked the Chairman for convening the meeting and
urged that as per the JCM Scheme, the meetings of the National Council
should be held on quarterly basis. He also pointed out that the meeting
of the National Council under the Chairmanship of Cabinet Secretary has
not been held since 2010 which, he emphasized, was against the spirit
and the basic principle of the JCM Scheme. This view was seconded by
other representatives of the Staff-Side.
(ii) Secretary (Staff-Side) further
requested to know the present position on the basic demands made by the
Central Government employees about minimum wages, fitment formula,
reversion to the old pension scheme and the report of the Committee of
Allowances. He recalled that when a notice for strike was given in 2016,
the senior Cabinet Ministers in the Central Government had met the
staff side representatives and assured a positive decision on the
aforesaid demands. Although that strike was deferred on this assurance,
the central govt. employees are still waiting. Consequently, it is
getting difficult to make the central government employees understand
the reasons for delay in fulfilment of the assurances then given by the
Senior Cabinet Ministers.
(iii) Hence Secretary, Staff-Side
requested the Chairman to convey to the Cabinet Secretary and Chairman,
National Council (JCM) the duty to meet the Government employees in
accordance with the JCM Scheme to avoid an atmosphere of confrontation.
(iv) He stated that a number of agenda
items proposed by the Staff-Side have been deleted and no formal
communication has been sent to them on the reasons for deletion. He
requested that the views of official side on this may be communicated to
them. This sentiment was echoed by other members of the Staff Side. He
also mentioned that the senior Cabinet Ministers had issued a statement
about constitution of a High Level Committee to look into the aforesaid
basic demands made by the Staff Side while giving the strike notice.
However, even after more than 10 months, nothing has happened and only
one meeting was taken by Additional Secretary in Department of
Expenditure.
(v) On allowances, he informed that
there is a lot of uncertainty on whether the allowances would become
admissible prospectively or from 01.01.2016 i.e., the date of
implementation of 7th Central Pay Commission.
(vi) The following points were also raised by Leader JCM (Staff-Side):
(a) The assurance given by Senior
Ministers on 30t h June 2016 on 7th CPC issues-mainly minimum wage and
multiplying factor have not been fulfilled. Only one meeting was held by
Addl. Secretary (Expenditure) with the Staff side and thereafter
nothing is known with regard to progress made even though 10 months
passed.
(b) On 7th CPC recommendation for
revision of pension on the basis of option the contents of the
Committee’s Report are not made available to the JCM (Staff Side). There
is need to see that transparency is ensured for preserving healthy
industrial relations.
(c) On Allowances, the Leader JCM (Staff
Side) expressed disappointment as there has been no positive outcome
even after lapse of several months. He requested the Chairman that the
JCM (Staff Side) demand to revise the Allowances w.e.f. 01/01/2016
should be considered and Staff Side demand be taken to the level of
Cabinet Secretary and the Government.
(d) Although Ministry of finance
Resolution dated 25t h July 2016 stipulates that 14.29% hike in the pay
of Running Staff in the Railways be ensured, unfortunately, the same has
not been complied with. The said hike has not been ensured. He
requested the Chairman to kindly take appropriate initiative on the
proposal sent by Ministry of Railways which is pending with the Ministry
of finance. He also pointed out that the references made by different
ministries to the DoP&T/MoF pursuant to the discussions held by the
JCM Constituents with the respective Departments/Ministries are pending.
He requested that speedy response be ensured by DoP&T/MoF. While
concluding, the Leader, JCM (Staff-Side) expressed confidence that the
NC/JCM meeting as well Standing Committee meetings will be convened
regularly in accordance with the JCM rules for paving way for healthy
industrial relations”.
(vii) The Staff-Side drew attention to
the fact that since 1966 Joint Committees used to be set up for
discussing contentious issues which has since stopped. References from
the Departments are also remaining unanswered. The members of the Staff
Side requested that DOP&T should take a view on all these issues as a
number of them have not been settled. The Staff Side also requested
that the duration of Standing Committee meetings should be extended so
that all issues can be discussed and resolved quickly and the meetings
should also be held every quarter.
(viii) The Staff-Side also pointed out
that items of agenda sent by them are to be included, if it is found to
be appropriate to be discussed. Since there had been permanent
subcommittees under the Chairmanship of Secretary (Health) and
(Pension), the agenda items pertaining to those two ministries can be
referred to those two sub-committees. The sub-committees are to
deliberate and report back to the Standing Committee for a final
decision. They wanted the said procedure to be followed as the items
sent by the Staff Side to the meeting contained many Pension and Health
related issues.
(ix) Referring to the convening of the
Departmental Council, the Staff Side said that the situation has not
registered any significant improvement. They also pointed out that in
the details provided; no dates of the last meeting held had been
indicated. They pleaded that the Department of Personnel has to evolve a
mechanism to monitor the functioning of the Departmental council.”
(x) In view of the ongoing ban on
recruitment imposed by the Department of Expenditure, the staff are
having to work long hours. This is despite the Task Force, set up by
Ministry of Railways on safety-related matters, having suggested that
additional staff be mobilized to ensure safety. Even the Hon’ble Prime
Minister in his speeches has stressed the need for safety; but the
Ministry of Railways have chosen to ignore.
(xi) Another point raised was about the
instructions issued by the DOP&T following the assurance given to
the Hon’ble Supreme Court in a contempt case which was said to have
created a situation where the DPCs are not being held and the employees
are retiring without getting promotion. It was stated that UPSC is also
refusing to accept DPC proposals and insists that clarification from
DOP&T may first be obtained. As a result promotions are not taking
place and many officers have retired without promotion. The Staff-Side
requested that necessary clarifications may be issued by DOP&T
urgently so that DPCs can be held in the Departments.
4. Chairman, in his reply, said that no
agenda points had been deleted and, in order to ensure that discussions
are complete in a meeting, it was decided in consultation with the
Secretary(Staff-Side) to limit the number of agenda points for today’s
meeting. He further stated that if the Staff-Side insists that the
remaining points which have been left out should also be taken up for
discussion, they would need to be circulated to the concerned
Departments in advance for their comments. He emphasized that the
Government attaches the highest priority to the Staff-Side and the
concerns expressed over the assurance given after the strike call would
be conveyed to the concerned authority. On the issue of the Allowances
Committee’s report not being shared with the Staff Side, the Chairman
stated that the sentiment would also be conveyed to Ministry of Finance
along with the concerns over pay revision etc.
5. After these opening remarks the
Action-Taken-Note on the minutes of the last meeting held on 25.10.2016
was taken up for discussion.
