7th Pay Commission: Central govt employees to take call on July 11 strike on Wednesday
New Delhi: Central government employees will decide on Wednesday whether to go on strike on July 11, in view of the government’s recent talks with the National Joint Council of Action (NJCA) on what they call a “meagre” pay hike.
The National Joint Council of Action , which represents 33 lakh Central government employees of Railways, Defence, Postal, Income Tax, Audit, Customs and Central Excise as well as other central government departments.
The Centre has fixed a minimum pay of Rs 18,000 in the pay hike approved by the Cabinet earlier this week. However, the central government employees are protesting the decision calling it a meagre rise in view of the price rise.
“Government has initiated talks with NJCA. We welcome it. But the decision regarding going on strike will be taken at the meeting of the council on July 6,” Convener of NJCA Shiv Gopal Mishra told PTI.
On June 30, the representatives of NJCA including Mishra were called for a meeting with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu and Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha.
“They have not assured us anything. They have proposed to refer the issue of minimum wage and fitment formula to a committee for reconsideration. The panel is expected to give its report in three to four months,” Mishra said.
Speculations were rife that the NJCA may defer the July 11 indefinite strike after government heeded to their demand of increasing minimum pay to over Rs 25,000 from Rs 18,000 fixed after considering the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission.
Under the fitment formula, the government multiplied the minimum wage of Rs 7,000 fixed in the last pay commission with 2.57 and arrived at a minimum pay of Rs 18,000 per month.
The employees are demanding for the fitment formula of 3.68, which will result in minimum monthly pay of Rs 25,760.
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