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Thursday, November 26, 2009

A LETTER FROM ARUN ZACHARIAH.P PRESIDENT AICEIA

Thursday, November 26, 2009

GRADE PAY UPGRADATION AND ITS AFTERMATH

A fortnight has passed after the issuance of the pay up gradation order and the initial euphoria has given way to airing of doubts, lamentations and accusations. These broadly fall into three categories.

i) What would be the pay fixation of a person joining as direct recruit subsequent to 01.01.2006? Pay fixation of a person promoted as inspector after 01.01.2006? Pay fixation of an inspector in service on 31.12.2005?
ii) Seniors are not benefited by this pay up gradation order and hence there is no need for any hype.
iii) The Association went wrong in withdrawing the strike without getting any assurance on the other demands in the strike agenda.

I would like briefly muse on these three points.

The pay fixation of direct recruit Inspector who joined on or after 01.01.2006 is free from doubt. The initial pay in pay band would Rs. 12540/- and the gross basic pay would be Rs. 17140/-. As regards the other two cases, two views exist. The first one is that the person who was on service as inspector on 31.12.2005 would be fixed in the revised pay band, on electing for revised pay structure on 01.01.2006, at a stage corresponding to his pre-revised basic pay as on 31.12.2005 multiplied by 1.86 and rounded off to Rs. 10/- plus the grade pay of Rs. 4600/- and a person who was promoted as Inspector after 01.01.2006 would get his pay fixed after adding an increment of 3% of his pay in pay band plus the grade pay of the feeder post to the pay in pay band and the grade pay of Rs. 4600/-. The second view is that the pay in pay band so fixed in both these cases shall not go below Rs. 12540/- There is no point in Association giving a clarification; we have to seek it from the authority competent to clarify. In this regard, it may also be worth mentioning that some of the individuals who were promoted as Inspector between 01.01.2006 and 01.09.2008 opted for the revised pay structure on the date of their promotion foregoing their arrears and got the pay fixed corresponding to the stage Rs. 6500/- in the pre revised scale. When the cadre of Inspectors do not have a pre-revised pay scale of Rs. 6500-10500 after 01.01.2006, is not these individual’s pay to be re-fixed as on their date of promotion to a stage corresponding to Rs. 7450/-? If that be the case, can a senior draw a lesser pay?

Coming to the senior’s benefit – to cry that the seniors are not benefited is nothing but a myopic view. First of all the grade pay has restored the parity with analogous cadre, our dignity, our status. Leave that apart because status without pay may not be universally acceptable. Let’s examine whether this order would benefit the seniors. What are our major out standing pay related demands. Notional fixation on 6500-10500 scale with effect from 01.01.1996 and Rs. 5400/- grade pay to ACP recipient Inspectors. You may recall that the initial pay in the pay band of revised pay structure corresponded to the pay plus dearness pay plus DA in the pre-revised scale and the grade pay was the fitment weightage. When a new recruit Inspector had to start his pay in revised pay band at the stage of Rs. 9300/-, the pre-revised pay scale of Inspector was effectively down graded to Rs. 5000-8000. Without even restoring the pay scale to 6500-10500, what logical possibility is there for granting notional fixation of the scale 6500-10500 from 01.01.1996? This up-gradation is absolutely essential in pursuing that demand. As regards the second demand of Rs. 5400/-; prior to this up-gradation only a section of the Inspectors were drawing grade pay of Rs. 4800/- on ACP. Now every Inspector would receive Rs. 4800/- on ACP. Hence I wish to state that despite non-availability of immediate financial benefits to seniors, this up-gradation would benefit them in the long run.

Finally the allegation that strike was withdrawn without obtaining all the demands – If you follow the actions and persuasions done by this Association during the last one year, you would be able to understand that the strike was not simply called on a one fine moment. Step by step, the grade pay issue was brought to the negotiation table. After several rounds of discussion, when finally the issue reached a stalemate, which could not be resolved except through a strike, notice was served. The other points were included in the charted so as to draw attention to it. In the matter of calling strike and calling off strike, I submit that the members should show the magnanimity of giving sufficient lee way to the leadership who would be assessing the situation and it may not be possible to share everything that is happening due to strategic reasons. Strike is similar to the game of brinkmanship used in the diplomatic circles. Only the persons in the first line of action can take the decision.

Before parting, I wish to say that the success in the grade pay issue is only because of our unity and let’s all be proud of that. This is a morale booster for all our future endeavors. We will work together to achieve that.


ARUN ZACHARIAH.P
PRESIDENT
AICEIA

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