Unprecedented Rally of Navodaya Employees

The rally at Jantar Mantar turned out to be a grand success. Even JAC leadership might have not expected the huge turn out that was witnessed at Jantar Mantar. Around ten tousand employees were present there to show their solidarity and strength. It is a glorias moment in view of the past rallies which turned out to be not so successful.
This success also shows that the fear factor has its end in Samiti. Let us throw the the Era of Navodaya I to the history's dust bin. ITS NAVODAYA II. A new era where there is no fear of opression. It's a new confindent NAVODAYA which won't shirk away from calling a spade a spade. Let us keep this momentum and fight for our rights until we get them.

TEACHERS DAY BEING OBSERVED AS HUNGER WORK DAY IN NAVODAYAS

In response to the call given by Navodaya Employees Joint Action Committee, employees of Navodaya Vidyalaya observed Teachers Day as Hunger Work Day to protest against the govt's apathy in providing GPF Cum Pension benefit to the employees who joined prior to 01/01/2004. Employees assembled in front of the school campuses at 7am and formal inaugurations of Hunger Word Day were done. They reaffirmed their decades old commitment for the Rural Poor Children and pledged to go on fast and work with more dedication on Teachers Day.
Employees expressed their sorrow for the deaf year meted out to them so far for their Genuine Demand of GPF Cum Pension Scheme for the employees who joined prior to 1-1-2004. In spite of the two parliamentary standing committees’ recommendations to accord the same benefit to the Navodaya Employees as it was accorded to Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan Employees, nothing was done so far. Even recently Employees of Accreditation and Assessment Council of India were allowed the benefit of GPF Cum Pension scheme.

KVs are residential schools whereas Navodaya Vidyalayas, who are administered by NVS which falls in the same Ministry of HRD, are residential school. KV employees work for eight hours a day whereas Navodaya employees work all through the day and night 24x7.Teachers are the House Masters and they have to take care of their students in a residential set up. KV teacher’s work ends at 2pm but a Navodaya Teacher’s work ends at 10 pm with night roll call in dormitories. In spite of this extraordinary commitment shown by the teachers, they could not get the equal benefits.

Employees of Navodaya Vidyalayas hope to get the attention of the govt by going on fast on Teachers Day. Teachers’ working with hunger on teachers’ day is not good omen for any nation.

United Struggle for GOI Pension for Navodaya Employees

It's a good news for all the employees of the samiti irrespective of the cadre. Two factions of ainvsa came together along with principal's forum and other unions with single point agenda of getting GOI Pension. Now we can hope for some movement in that direction.
JAC decided to observe the Teachers Day as HUNGER WORK DAY to draw the attention of the authorities to the dire need of GOI Pension to Navodaya Employees. All the employees will work on that day with at most dedication but FASTING THE WHOLE DAY. All the units should publicize this at their level best.

The following are the members of the JAC:
1. Sri V L Balasubramanian, JNB Kasaragod
2. Sri R.S. Naik, JNV Kanacona
3. Sri T.P. Mani, JNV Kollam
4. Sri L.B. Reddy, JNV Warangal
5. Sri J.K. Singh, JNV Katihar
6. Sri Jagadeesh Rai,
7. Sri Shiv Narayan Sharma, RO Chandigarh
8. Sri Vijaya Kumar,JNV
9. Smt Sunitha Bhatt, RO Chandigarh
10. Sri P Rajesh, JNV Kasaragod
11. Sri P K Guptha, JNV Ratibad
12. Sri S S Dora, JNV Angul
14. Sri Yogendra Kumar Sharma, JNV Kotiya
15. Sri Gajendra Kumar, JNV Mahendragarh
16. Ms Mary k P, JNV Hoshangabad

A delegation consisting of 11 members of JAC called on the Hon Minister Sri Kapil Sibalji, MHRD on 10th evening at 7.30pm and submitted the memorandum. He promised that he would look into the matter. You can read my previous posts how much pension you would get under nps and Navodaya employees got pension.

New Pension System notified by Samiti

New Pension System was notified by samiti last week and employees who were appointed prior to 1/4/2004 should exercise their option with in three months. Many employees are confused about the system as NPS is a noval product. All the senior employees got disappointed as they could not get GOI pension. Majority lack a clear understanding of the NPS and its architecture. In order to decide the pros and cons one must understand the product first. I think you can get all your doubts cleared at pension fund regulators site
There is one important positive of NPS. In old system 10 per cent of basic pay was the contribution from the employee and the employer. Under NPS, both contribute 10 per cent of Basic Pay+Grade Pay+Dearness Allowance. For an employee who is two or three decades away from retirement, the contribution from Samiti will be far higher than that of Samiti's contribution under CPF as it is restricted to 10 per cent of Basic Pay and Grade Pay and Dearness Allowance is not considered.. Please read my post:"how much pension you would get: for further information and links for calculations.

What happened to Transfers?

Many teachers, who took lot of trouble to go down to Bhopal so that they would be near to their homes and families, are anxiously waiting for the details of the transfers. But nothing was posted until now on the web site. Hardly it would require a couple of days to finish the formalities. Abnormal delay in finalization of the transfer orders affects the working of the Vidyalayas as many teachers are not able to concentrate in their present Vidyalayas. There are some rumours under circulation about the orders being cancelled! When Samiti wants effeciancy and excellance at RO level and Vidyalaya level, HQ should stand as an ideal. They should have not taken this much of time!! The damage is already done!!

Injustice to senior teachers in pay fixation

We had been waiting for the revision of pay for a long time and we felt glad when pay revision report was made. We were a bit happier than other employees, as scales of teachers were upgraded and at Navodaya we got the additional ten per cent residential allowance.

But when we look at the notification and its implementation, the teacher community was meted out step motherly treatment due to the interpretation of rules only in letter but not in spirit.

As per Rule 8 of revised pay rules, a PRT will get basic pay of 13,500 whereas a TGT and PGT will get 17,140 and 18,150 respectively at the time of their appointment directly. In Navodayas, the pays of the newly recruited teachers is not fixed accordingly. But newly recruited teachers will certainly get the benefit as Director UT-2 MHRD vide letter NO.F3-43/2008/UT-2 dated 20h March 2009 has issued clarifications in consultation with Min. of Finance to KVS.

According to Note 7 under Rule 7 of revised pay rules seniors’ pay will be stepped up to that of junior. But the letter mentioned above clearly stipulated the following conditions:

(a) Stepping up the basic pay of seniors under the above provision can be claimed only in the case of those cadres which have an element of direct recruitment and in cases where a directly recruited junior is actually drawing more basic pay than the seniors. In such cases, the basis pay of the seniors will be stepped up with reference to the basic pay of the junior.

(b) Using the above provision, Government servants cannot claim stepping up their revised basic pay with reference to entry pay in the revised pay structure for direct recruits appointed on or after 1.1.12006 as laid down in Section 11 of Part A of First Schedule to the CCS (RP) Rules, 2008, if their cadre does not have an element of direct recruitment, or in cases ,where no junior is drawing basic pay higherthan them.

(c) Stepping up of pay of the seniors in accordance with the above provision shall not be applicable in cases where direct recruits have been granted advance increments at the time of recruitment.

When you apply the above conditions, the stepping up of pay will not apply to many

cases. I have given a few examples.

1) A PGT who joined in 2002 gets revised at 18010 on 1/01/2006. He may not get the benefit of stepping up on notional basis. As there is no direct recruitment in year 2006, and the first junior is recruited in Feb. 2007 and by that time after taking his annual increment, his pay will stand at 18560 which is higher than 18,150.

2) A TGT who is recruited on 12/02/1997 gets his pay fixed at 17,440 whereas a TGT who is appointed on 1/1/2006 gets his pay fixed at 17140. The value of service for nine years is 300 (less than one increment)!! There is no case of stepping up as it is technically more than that of his junior.

3) A PGT who is recruited on 01.12.1999 gets his pay fixed at 19,500 whereas a PGT who is appointed on 1/1/2006 gets his pay fixed at 18150. The value of service for six years is worth 1350!!

4) A PET who is appointed on 10.26.1988 gets his pay fixed(after getting ACP in 2003) at 19130 which is only 730 more than that of newly recruited PGT!!

All these anomalies are the result of ambiguity in revised pay rules. All the above fixations were done as per the Note 2A under Rule 7 of Central Civil Services (Revised Pay) Rules, 2008. In explanatory memo to the above said rules certain illustrations were made and illustration 4A (which shows the bunching process of stepping up) applies to teachers as our scales were upgraded. The bunching benefit was denied by ministry of finance as no two stages are getting bunched into the same stage due to new system of running pay bands. (Ministry of Finance issued clarifications to that effect). Though all these anomalies may not violate the rules of notification technically, but they violate the spirit of up gradation of scales of teachers.

The same is the case of all the teachers across the departments and ministries. So it’s the right time for the teaching community to come together and work against the injustice meted out to our community. We should represent at all levels for the bunching benefit through which all the anomalies can be removed in pay revision.

We got arriers before KV guys!!

When I came to know that KV teachers are yet to get the arreares, I wondered a lot. Navodaya had been always at the receiving end while KV was pampered by the big bosses at HRD ministry. Sixth PRC has done some goodthings for Navodayans, teachers got 10 per cent residential allowance. Though they could not get stepped up basic pays unlike their colleagues in residential schools in Andhra Pradesh, it was not a total disappointment. Still Navodaya teachers feel discriminated as they are not entitled to GOI Pension. Employees do recognize the efforts of officers at the top within samiti for the positive changes that they have witnessed during last few years. But the logical conclusion of all such efforts is attaining GOI Pension. Unless it happens,employees will vote with their feet whenever and wherever they find greener pastures. Attrition will nagatively effect the students' academic performance.