7th Pay Commission latest news today: Festival season starts, raises hopes of all sarkari staffers

The central government employees are still waiting for their Dearness Allowance (DA) from 1st January to June 30, 2019 under the aegis of 7th Pay Commission (7th CPC) system. With Ganesh Chaturthi come and gone, the expectations have increased manifold. The Dearness Allowance announcement for H2-2019 is being awaited since last two months as speculations were that it would be announced in August, but now observers feel the government may delay it to September so that its announcement would coincide with Diwali. 

The Steel Authority of India (SAIL) top management has written to Ministry of Labour and Employment, recommending 5 per cent Dearness Allowance (DA) hike for its officer's grade employees. If the SAIL management recommendation is accepted, then each officer's grade SAIL employees will get Rs 5,000 monthly salary hike, according to our sources. Notably, the hike in the officer's grade DA has been recommended from October 1st.

If the SAIL management recommendations are accepted, the SAIL officers' DA would go up from 57.4 per cent to 62.4 per cent. The DA of PSU employees increases quarterly i.e, every three months. SAIL being a PSU, not an exception to it and its employees are entitled to a DA hike on a quarterly basis. The DA is increased keeping the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in mind, as its is a hedge against the rise in inflation. The hike would lead a monthly salary increase of Rs 5,000 to the SAIL officers. In the last quarter, DA for SAIL officers was increased by 5.3 per cent. If we include both officers and lower-grade employees, there are around 1,00,000 employees working at SAIL.

The Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) has also recommended 3.2 per cent hike for the Dearness Allowance (DA) for its lower grade employees. If the recommendation is accepted, lower grade employees at SAIL will have a monthly salary hike from Rs 500 to Rs 1,800. In the last quarter, DA for the lower grade SAIL employees was increased by 3.4 per cent. Since the DA is hiked as per the increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), this hike would a big boost for the lower grade SAIL employess ahead of Diwali 2019.

Despite the 7th Pay Commission benefits extended to a large number of government employees, a group of other staffers are still deprived of it. Among these are around 500 teachers belonging to Uttarakhand’s Udham Singh Nagar Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology. This has led to an indefinite strike and it has been going on since July, 2019. They are demanding a salary hike as the administration has failed to come to a settlement on the pay issue, according to ANI report.

The agitating teachers are demanding the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission along with job regularisation. Pantnagar University Teachers Association (PUTA) has also staged the protest to represent teachers. As the administration failed to reach the new wage settlement, the strike is affecting the new academic session in the university.