7th pay commission: These employees to get pay hike twice a year

Around 50 lakh central government employees are still waiting for a pay hike beyond the recommendations of seventh pay commission, good news arive for a certain section of employees. The Haryana government has decided to increase salary of serving guest teachers by 20 to 25 per cent, an official spokesman told PTI earlier this week. 

Besides, the government has also decided to raise their salary twice a year in the month of January and July equivalent to cost of living index, he said.

Now the guest teachers serving as JBT/Drawing teacher, master or school lecturer would get Rs 26,000, Rs 30,000 and Rs 36,000, respectively from July 1, 2018, the spokesman said.

The decision was taken in a meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar with the unions of the guest teachers today. Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma was also present in the meeting.

After the 7th Pay Commission report, the state government had effected a 14.52 per cent increase in their monthly salary from January 1, 2017 and it was raised to Rs 21,715 for JBT/Drawing teachers, Rs 24,001 for master and Rs 29,715 for school lecturers.

"Today, taking a significant decision in the interest of thousands of working guest teachers, the chief minister has decided to increase their salary to Rs 26,000, Rs 30,000 and Rs 36,000, respectively," the official said.

The next increase will be effective from January 1, 2019 which would be equal to the increase in cost of living index as prescribed and announced by the Economic and Statistical Analysis Department, Haryana, he added. 

Meanwhile, despite the government's denial, around 50 lakh central government employees are still waiting for the pay hike beyond the recoomendations of the seventh pay commission. While, there are many reports floating around arguing that why the Centre might give a pay hike just before the general elections of 2019,  employees hopes are still alive after the government increased MSP. 

The employees are once again hopeful as this is an indicator that the government has the money and the economy is looking good. Many feel that the MSP is just the beginning of a slew of measures that the government would be introducing. The government has increased the minimum support price (MSP) of Kharif crops to 1.5 times the cost of production.

Earlier, the Minister of State for Finance P. Radhakrishnan in Lok Sabha had said that the Prime Minister's Narendra Modi government is not planning to give any hike in minimum basic salary beyond the recommendations of the seventh pay commission. 

Currently, the Central government employees are getting basic pay according to the fitment formula of 2.57 of the basic pay and if this big step is taken, it will come as a massive news for the Central government employees. Fitment factor is a figure used by 7th CPC with which the basic pay in 6th CPC regime (i.e Pay in Pay band + Grade pay) is multiplied in order to fix basic pay in revised pay structure (i.e 7th CPC). Fitment factor formulated by 7th CPC is 2.57.

(With inputs from PTI)