Employees becoming impatient due to delays in pay revision

State government employees at different levels are becoming impatient due to the delays in the announcement of fitment and other benefits.

More than a month after the Pay Revision Commission has submitted its report, the process is yet to take a firm step forward. The three member high power committee headed by Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar has conducted discussions with 14 different employees unions over the past week and took on record their grievances relating to recommendation of 7.5 % fitment recommended by the Commission, which was far below their aspirations.

The committee has started evaluation of the representations made by the employees’ representatives for ascertaining the financial implications the demands would have on the State exchequer, especially in the light of presentation of Union Budget 2021-22 which did not assure any additional releases to the State in terms of finances. It was decided at the meeting of the three-member committee to undertake an in-depth examination of the financial implications at the earliest so that employees’ unions could be explained about the burden that implementation of their demands would entail.

Employees’ unions are firm that it was for Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to take a political decision on the quantum of fitment and other benefits that should be given to the employees who had been waiting for announcement of pay revision since almost three years. But the delay in submission of report by the three-member committee to the Chief Minister is likely to further delay the entire process.

Representatives of some employees unions are suspecting that this was a strategy to further delay the process. “We are at a loss to understand the essence of instructions given to the three-member committee by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao,” an employees’ union leader told The Hindu. It appears that the process will be delayed till this month-end so that the announcement will be made next month and the actual implementation would be effective from the next financial year, he said.