8th Pay Commission Salary Revision: NC-JCM Seeks Uniform Fitment For Central Govt Employees Regardless Of Pay Bands

New Delhi: The National Council of Joint Consultative Machinery is negotiating with the 8th Pay Commission to set up a uniform fitment factor to revise central government employees' salaries across all pay bands. This would ensure that all employees, regardless of their pay bands, would receive the same multiplication factor when their salaries are revised, NDTV reported.  

The NC-JCM is an official body made up of bureaucrats and labor union leaders. Its aim is to use conversation to settle any disagreements between the government and its employees.

"We want the fitment factor to be same across all pay bands, whether it is Pay Band 1 or Pay Band 4. This will be our demand before the 8th Pay Commission," NC-JCM (Staff Side) Secretary Shiv Gopal Mishra told NDTV Profit. 

According to Mishra, if there is a standard fitting factor, all employees will have the same multiplication factor used for compensation revision, regardless of the pay bands they are bracketed under. 

Under the 7th Pay Commission, 2.57 was the fitment factor used to revise the pay of workers in Pay Band 1. However, the panel increased the fitment factor to 2.62 for Pay Band 2, 2.67 for Pay Band 3, and 2.72 for higher pay grades under Pay Band 4 using a rationalization index. The 7th Pay Commission has suggested a fitment factor of 2.81 for the apex level salary modification after accounting for the index of rationalization, NDTV reported.

"The index of rationalisation is decided by the pay commission...The general approach is that those burdening greater responsibility should get higher pay rise. But our demand is that fitment factor should be uniform to reduce the gap between the maximum and minimum salaries," Mishra told NDTV.

"The 4th Pay Commission had talked about the need to reduce the vast gap between minimum and maximum salaries. But since then, the gap has only increased. In our view, the 8th Pay Commission should recommend a uniform fitment factor to address this," Mishra, who is also the general secretary of the All India Railwaymen's Federation, told NDTV.

In a meeting with the Department of Personnel and Training last week, the NC-JCM staff side also demanded that unviable pay scales be merged. They called for level 1 and level 2 pay scales to be combined, level 3 and level 4 pay scales to be combined, and level 5 and level 6 pay scales to be combined.

"This is important to address as non-viable pay scales lead to pay stagnation, and thereby affect MACP (Modified Assured Career Progression Scheme)," Mishra told NDTV.

The fitment factor for salary revision under the 7th Pay Commission is 2.57 for the first pay band and 2.81 for the highest level. The common fitting factor might have been between 2.57 and 2.81 if there had not been an index of rationalization, another NC-JCM member stated on condition of anonymity.

According to employee unions, the fitting factor would have been higher than what was advised for people under Pay Band 1 if the index of rationalization had not been applied.

The 8th Pay Commission, approved by the government last month, is set to consist of a chairman and two members. After its formation, the commission will discuss its report with stakeholders, NDTV reported.