Tuesday, April 28, 2009

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.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

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.