8th Pay Commission: Luck of government employees shines! Big decision will be taken on fitment factor on Monday

New Delhi. The coming Monday is going to prove to be very important for lakhs of central government employees and pensioners. An important meeting of the drafting committee of the National Council of Joint Consultative Machinery (NC-JCM) is going to be held on 13 April. The main agenda of this meeting is to finalize the proposed ‘Share Memorandum’ for the 8th Pay Commission. This will be the document that will decide the new outline of your salary and pension in future.

Why is the meeting of April 13 special?

There is tremendous enthusiasm among the employees regarding this meeting because all the major issues related to salaries, pensions and service conditions will be included in it, which have to be placed firmly before the Commission. Let us tell you that earlier on March 12 also a meeting had been held to discuss these issues. Now in the discussion to be held on April 13, those suggestions will be finalized and made a part of the memorandum, so that there can be a big improvement in the financial condition of the employees.

All eyes are on fitment factor

The biggest discussion among employees is about ‘fitment factor’. In simple words, this is the magic number by which your basic salary is multiplied. At present the employee organizations are demanding that it should be increased to 3.25 or more. NC-JCM Secretary Shiv Gopal Mishra has written a letter to the Commission appealing to include 9 additional important issues. The organizations have a clear argument that considering the speed at which inflation is increasing, a respectable increase in the basic salary is the need of the hour.

There will be a huge jump in salary

If the government accepts the demand of employee organizations and the fitment factor is increased to 3.25, then there will be a bumper increase in the salaries from lower level to senior officers. Apart from this, the possibility of merging Dearness Allowance (DA) with basic salary will also be discussed in the meeting. Currently DA has reached 58% and it is expected that it will soon touch the 60% mark. If DA is merged with basic salary, not only will your salary increase, but other benefits like HRA, gratuity and pension will also automatically increase significantly.

18 month countdown and the next path

The Central Government has already constituted the 8th Pay Commission. The commission has been given 18 months to submit its detailed recommendations. The memorandum to be prepared after this meeting on April 13 will decide to what extent the Commission meets the expectations of the employees. At present, the heartbeats of central employees across the country are fast regarding the results of this meeting.