Salary hike 'peanuts', Govt employees cry foul

MONEY MATTERS: A majority of Central Government employees say they've got a raw deal.

Featured Blog

Rajdeep Sardesai

Maharaj or Dada, Ganguly's legacy lives on

Featured Slideshows

New Delhi: The feel good factor that the pay hike to Central Government employees was to create is not happening. A majority of them say the Sixth Pay Commission [Highlights and Pay Scales] gave them a raw deal and the hike is peanuts.

“Vested interests and lobbies working against us did not allow a hike to happen,” says D N Sahoo of the CCS forum.

Here are the facts:

Group B, C and D employees - who constitute the majority 40 lakh odd pool of central workers - may have got an increment of about 20 per cent, but in money terms, that amounts to a hike of between Rs 1,000 and Rs 3,000.

This, as opposed to Group A officers (joint secretary level and above) who got a 50 per cent hike, translating to a raise between Rs 20,000 and Rs 30,000.

Another anomaly: if earlier, a financial upgrade was assured after 12 and 24 years of service, it’s now been moved to between 18 and 50 years. Whoever worked that long, protesting employees want to know.

“As a part of the dharna, we will not let any Commissioner or Joint Commissioner-level officer to enter office premises,” says employees’ union leader, Dalip Singh.

In an election year, the Sixth Pay Commission was essentially meant as a tactic to woo the 40 lakh-strong votebank.

But the only people feeling good about the pay hike are a handful of bureaucrats who probably do not even take out time to cast their vote.