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Business Desk – 8th Pay Commission: The ongoing consultation meetings of the 8th Pay Commission in Delhi ended on August 10. In these meetings, central employee unions and pensioners' organizations presented their demands regarding Salary, Pension and Allowances before the Commission. The most important demand among these is regarding increasing the minimum basic salary and new Fitment Factor.

Indian Railway Technical Supervisors Association i.e. IRTSA, in its memorandum to the 8th Pay Commission, has demanded to increase the minimum basic salary from the current Rs 18,000 to Rs 52,600.

For this the organization has proposed 2.92 Fitment Factor. However, this is only the demand of the employee organization. The 8th Pay Commission or the Central Government has not taken a final decision on this.

2.92 What is the meaning of Fitment Factor?

Fitment factor is used to convert the old Basic Pay into the new Basic Pay. If a factor of 2.92 is applied on the current minimum basic salary of Rs 18,000, then the amount comes to around Rs 52,560. Based on this calculation, IRTSA has demanded a minimum basic salary of around Rs 52,600.

Demand for different factors at different pay levels

Instead of keeping the same fitment factor for all employees, IRTSA has suggested setting different factors according to different pay levels and responsibilities. Higher Fitment Factor has been demanded for the technical and security employees of Railways at Pay Level 6 and above.

Demand for annual increment of 5%

The employee organization has also demanded to increase the annual salary increase from 3% to 5%. Apart from this, many suggestions have also been given to improve the career growth of the employees.

Demand to give Group-B Gazetted Status to SSE

IRTSA has demanded to give Group-B Gazetted Status to Senior Section Engineers i.e. SSE. The organization says that this will help in reducing the stagnation in the career of Junior Engineer and Senior Section Engineer.

Demand to increase allowances also

Employee organizations have also demanded an increase in Night Duty Allowance, Overtime, Risk Allowance and Hardship Allowance. Along with this, changes in the rules of MACP have been suggested.

Further meetings will be held in these cities including Jaipur, Chennai

After Delhi, the consultation process of the 8th Pay Commission will continue. According to the proposed schedule, meetings will be held in Jaipur on 31 August-1 September, Chennai on 7-8 September, Puducherry on 9 September and Chandigarh on 16-18 September.

Salary of Rs 52,600 not decided yet

At present the minimum basic salary of Rs 52,600 and 2.92 Fitment Factor is not final. This is the demand of IRTSA. The Commission will give its recommendations to the Central Government after considering the suggestions of different employee organizations. After this the government will take the final decision. Therefore, the official figure of how much the basic salary of the employees will increase has not been revealed yet.