The Confederation of Central Government Employees and Workers has appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to fast-track the formation of the 8th Central Pay Commission. The request comes at a time when there are delays in the commission’s announcement. The Pay Commission aims to address the pressing concerns related to salary hike of central government employees and pensioners.

The workers’ union has brought to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attention that central government employees have been waiting for a wage revision for nearly nine years. The last revision dates back to January 2016.

“After the pandemic situation, the prices of essential commodities and also the non-essential commodities have increased manifold including manufacturing industries, construction, health, service sector, etc. The higher interest rates are also adversely affecting employees/pensioners, the inflation is in the range of 4 % to 7% on an average is about 5.5 %. Due to higher inflation rates, the real money value has gone down considerably in the past 9 years, especially after the Covid situation,” the Confederation said in the letter to the Prime Minister.

“The pay structure of the central government employees should be sound enough to attract the best talent of our Country, it should be revised every five years. The best-talented employees would be instrumental in providing good leadership and good governance,” the letter further read.

8th Pay Commission: All Details

The central government employees are eagerly waiting for their pay revisions. However, the Union Finance Ministry recently informed Rajya Sabha that it has no plans for the establishment of a new pay commission, as yet.

Shiv Gopal Mishra, secretary of the staff side of the National Council of Joint Consultative Machinery (NC-JCM), has suggested that the upcoming 8th Pay Commission may recommend a minimum fitment factor of “at-least 2.86”. If the government OKs this fitment factor, the minimum basic pay of the central government employees will rise from Rs 18,000 to Rs 51,480. This is an astonishing 186% hike. Similarly, in this case the minimum pension of the central government pensioners will rise to Rs 25,740 from Rs 9,000.