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The 8th Pay Commission has officially expanded its field consultation process, scheduling a major two-day regional tour to Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.

According to an official notification issued by the panel, the commission will hold active stakeholder interactions in Lucknow on June 22 and 23, 2026. The move aims to allow regional central government organizations, institutions, and employee unions from India’s most populous state to pitch their salary and allowance demands directly to the panel.

Interested employee bodies and associations wanting to meet the panel must submit an appointment request on the designated government NIC portal on or before June 10, 2026. The commission emphasized that only those organizations located within Uttar Pradesh should apply during this specific regional window.

Mandatory Digital Filing for Appointments

The commission has established a strict protocol for employee groups seeking a seat at the negotiating table. Before requesting an appointment, unions must have already uploaded their detailed demand memorandums onto the central 8th CPC web portal.

Upon successful submission of the salary memorandum, the portal generates a 'Unique Memo ID'. Union leaders are required to provide this specific ID when filling out the final appointment forms via the official government link.

The Lucknow tour follows similar field visits scheduled for early June to Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir, and the Union Territory of Ladakh. The panel, led by former Supreme Court Judge Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, is stepping up direct consultations after concluding its initial rounds of high-level meetings with the Defense and Railway ministries in New Delhi.

National Salary Pitches

The Lucknow announcement coincides with a critical fast-approaching deadline for the entire central workforce. The commission recently extended the final date for all central employee unions and pensioner associations to submit their official salary and fitment structure recommendations to May 31, 2026.

Major apex bodies, including the National Council Joint Consultative Machinery (NC-JCM) and the All India Defence Employees Federation (AIDEF), are actively finalizing their core pitches. The central debate remains focused on the "fitment factor," which is the formula used to multiply existing basic salaries into the new 8th Pay matrix.

While the previous pay commission used a 2.57 multiplier to set the minimum basic pay at ₹18,000, current employee representations are aggressively demanding a multiplier between 2.86 and 3.83. If accepted, these proposed changes could push the baseline floor for entry-level central salaries well past ₹35,000 per month.