Big update for crores of central government employees. The Union Cabinet, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sanctioned the formation of the 8th Pay Commission on January 16, 2025, to assess the salaries of approximately 5 million central government employees and the allowances of 6.5 million pensioners.
In this context, the National Council of Joint Consultative Machinery (JCM) Staff Side has put forth its recommendations regarding the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the 8th Central Pay Commission (CPC). These recommendations encompass various critical aspects, including salary structure, the merger of Dearness Allowance (DA), pension increases, and other significant issues pertinent to government employees and pensioners.
What are the specifics?
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) called for input from the JCM Staff Side to finalize the TOR for the 8th Central Pay Commission on January 23, 2025. Shiv Gopal Mishra, Secretary of the NC-JCM Staff Side, presented a proposal detailing the demands, which included a total of 15 recommendations.
A notable suggestion from the staff side for government employees was the consolidation of pay scales within levels 1-6. In a correspondence dated February 3, 2025, the proposals regarding the Terms of Reference from the Staff Side were forwarded to the JCA and JCM Secretary. The correspondence indicated that Level-1 should be merged with Level-2, Level-3 with Level-4, and Level-5 with Level-6.
What’s going to change?
Right now, the pay scale ranges from Level 1 to Level 18. After the 7th Pay Commission, the lowest monthly salary at Level 1 was set at Rs 18,000, while the highest at Level 18 was capped at Rs 2,50,000. If the government decides to merge Levels 1 through 6, for instance, employees at Level 1 currently earn Rs 18,000, and those at Level 2 make Rs 19,900. If these levels are combined and a fitment factor of 2.86 is applied, their new salary would jump to Rs 51,480. Merging Levels 3 and 4 would raise the salary to Rs 72,930, and combining Levels 5 and 6 would push the basic salary to Rs 1,01,244 with the same fitment factor. The goal of this merger is to fix salary discrepancies and create a more straightforward pay structure.
Here are some additional proposals
In addition to merging pay scales, employees are advocating for a faster integration of dearness allowance (DA) and dearness relief (DR) into the basic salary and pension. The suggestion is to include a certain percentage of DA/DR in the salary framework to help counter inflation’s effects on government workers and retirees, ultimately increasing their take-home pay and pensions.