Big meetings of 8th Pay Commission begin, how much will be the change from salary to pension? Know the main demands of the employees

The stir regarding the 8th Pay Commission constituted for lakhs of central government employees and pensioners has intensified. Important phased meetings of the Commission with stakeholders, employee unions and pensioner associations have started in different cities of the country. After Puducherry, Chennai and Jaipur, now three-day high-level meetings are going on in major centers like Chandigarh, in which important changes related to salary, allowances, pension and work culture of central employees are being discussed extensively. Through these meetings the Commission is closely understanding the suggestions of all the parties before preparing the final report.

What are the main proposals on minimum basic salary and fitment factor?

Many big and attractive proposals have been put forward by employee unions and various organizations to improve the wage structure. In view of the current rising inflation and cost of living, employee organizations have raised the demand to increase the fitment factor from 2.86 to 3.25 or more. Some prominent unions have even put forward a proposal to the Commission to directly increase the minimum basic salary from Rs 68,000 to Rs 69,000. Although, no final figure of minimum wage or fitment factor has been decided officially yet, but due to these proposals the expectations of the central employees have increased significantly.

Major demands raised regarding pension and Old Pension Scheme (OPS)

Along with salaries, issues related to pensioners and retired employees are also being given special emphasis in these meetings. Various pensioner associations have again raised their old demand for reinstatement of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS). Apart from this, demands like increasing the amount of pension and family pension, simplifying the rules of commutation recovery, and developing a new and permanent mechanism of pay and pension revision every 5 years have also been made loudly. Experts believe that the final decision on these recommendations will be clear only after the 8th Pay Commission report comes and the government gives its green signal.