The National Council (Staff Side) Joint Consultative Machinery (NC-JCM) has issued a memorandum, seeking higher base salary, fitment factor and HRA under the 8th Pay Commission.
The memorandum, sent ahead of schedule by the NC-JCM, said that keeping in mind the increasing inflation and the necessities of life, many important demands have been made.
Shiva Gopal Mishra, secretary NC-JCM, said, among the demands is a proposal for fitment factor of 3.833. Based on this, instead of Rs 18000, the minimum wage has been proposed to be Rs 69,000 and the maximum wage has been proposed to be Rs 2,15,000.
A demand of 6% annual salary increment has also been placed in the memorandum.
8th Pay Commission pay scale
NC-JCM has suggested structural changes in the pay scale. As per the proposal, the existing Pay Scale 2 and 3 should be merged to form the new Pay Scale 2. Similarly, it has been suggested to merge Pay Scale 4 and 5 to form a new Pay Scale 3. It is proposed to modify the existing pay scale 6 and convert it into pay scale 4, while a new pay scale 5 is proposed to be created by combining pay scales 7 and 8.
The NC-JCM has also proposed to create a new Pay Scale 6 by merging the existing Pay Scales 9 and 10. The objective of these changes is to simplify the pay structure and ensure its benefits to more employees.
8th Pay Commission family unit
The family unit has been demanded to be 5. An important change has been proposed to end the disparity in the unit value of men and women and give one unit each equally to both. Also, it has also been sought in the memorandum that parents should be included in the family unit.
It may be noted that the 7th Pay Commission calculated minimum pay based on 3 consumption units which covered the employee, spouse and two children. This calculation was based on Dr. Wallace Aykroyd’s formula which determines living wages based on nutritional requirement (2,700 calories per adult), clothing requirement (72 yards per year) and housing cost. The idea was to determine how much money a family needs to sustain a basic and dignified standard of living.
