Telangana: PRC recommends 7.5% pay hike for staff

Suggests enhancing retirement age of State government employees from 58 years to 60

Hyderabad: The first Pay Revision Commission (PRC) for State government employees has recommended a fitment of 7.5 per cent on basic pay besides enhancing the retirement age from 58 years to 60.

The three-member commission of the retired IAS officers, comprising CR Biswal as chairman and C Umamaheswara Rao and Mohammed Ali Rafath as members, said since the DA was merged on July 1, 2018, the new scales will come into operation from that day. The government, however, may take a view on the date from which financial benefit would accrue keeping in view its resource position and various demands, it said.

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The commission said the master scale concept was retained with 32 grades and 80 segments and it was formulated keeping in mind several principles including that the annual increment would range from 3.36 per cent of the pay in initial stages to 2.33 per cent finally and that the periodicity of increase in increment would be three years.

The new scale was evolved by merging DA with basic pay as on July 1, 2018. The minimum pay for the lowest paid employee would be Rs 19,000 per month while the maximum pay suggested for the master scale was Rs 1,62,070 per month, representing a minimum to maximum ratio of 1:8.53. The minimum pension/family pension should be fixed at Rs 9,700 per month i.e., 50 per cent of the minimum pay in the revised master pay scale.

In case of stagnation which should not normally arise, a grant of up to five stagnation increments was recommended. According to the report, the existing practice of following the Central government in sanctioning DA twice a year is to be continued.

Since Central DA rates are based on DA merged scales of January 1, 2016, while the DA as on July 1, 2018, has been merged with the scales now proposed for the State employees, the commission recommends a conversion factor of 0.910 for sanction of DA from January 1, 2019.

It means that for every 1% increase in DA sanctioned by the Centre, the DA to be sanctioned by the State to its employees would be 0.910 per cent for the DA starting from January 1, 2019.

The commission recommended that the Child Care Leave (CCL) be enhanced from 90 days to 120 days in the case of normal children and from 90 days to two years in the case of disabled children, on par with the Central employees. This leave should be granted with a 100 per cent salary for the first 365 days and 80 per cent for the next 365 days. The CCL can be extended to single male parents who may include unmarried or widower or divorcees. The Special Disability Leave is substituted by a new leave named “Work Related Illness and Injury Leave” (WRILL), and Special Disability Leave for accidental injury and Hospital Leave have been merged with WRILL.

As for medical benefits, the commission has recommended a streamlining cashless treatment under Employees Health Scheme (EHS) collecting one per cent basic pay from employees and one per cent of basic pension from pensioners and creating a ‘separate reserve’ as in case of Arogya Bhadratha.

The expenditure shall be met from the reserve initially and the same shall be recouped from the reimbursement by the government after scrutiny of bills as per the existing rules. It also recommended extension of EHS to retired CPS employees, collecting a lump sum equal to one month pension or as decided by the government at the time of their retirement.

It also recommended that the medical allowance to service pensioners and family pensioners be enhanced from Rs 350 per month to Rs 600 per month.

CS-led panel meets employee leaders

The three-member committee headed by Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar met the office-bearers of three employees associations — Telangana Gazetted Officers Association, Telangana Non-gazetted Officers Association and Telangana Secretariat Association — here on Wednesday.

As per the directions of Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, the committee heard the views of the three associations on the PRC recommendations and other issues. The CS responded positively to their issues pertaining to the PRC recommendations and other related matters which will be brought to the CM’s notice.

Also read:

Telangana: Discussion on PRC report with govt employees soon

Salary hikes: PRC chairman submits first report to CS Somesh Kumar

Telangana: PRC recommends Rs 9,700 per month minimum pension

 

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