BRAND-NEW DELHI: After the Cabinet authorized the constitution of 8th Pay Commission on Thursday, an area of train unions has actually begged with the federal government to reevaluate its choice on Night Duty Allowance, which has a ceiling of pay degree in addition to a fundamental income. The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) carried July 13, 2020 provided a workplace memorandum according to which “the ceiling of basic pay for entitlement of Night Duty Allowance shall be Rs 43,600 per month”, to name a few problems.
“According to the DoPT OM (workplace memorandum), also if a worker’s fundamental pay is over Rs 43,600, his Night Duty Allowance (NDA) will certainly be computed assuming his fundamental pay as Rs 43,600 which is unreasonable and with no reasoning,” stated North Eastern Railway Men’s Congress assistant basic assistant Vivek Mishra.
The Railway Board, nevertheless, provided a guideline on September 29, 2020 and stated that NDA would certainly be approved to those workers, that depend on pay degree 7 just. This removed the top pay degree workers of 8 and 9 to obtain any type of advantage of NDA. “The Railway Ministry too didn’t offer any rationale for imposing such a restriction. This is demotivating and discouraging. As the government has announced the constitution of 8th Pay Commission, I humbly plead to the DoPT as well as the Ministry of Railway to look into this aspect separately as the working of Railways is not like other government departments,” Mishra stated.
According to the unions, “Before 2020, all public servant made use of to obtain the stated allocation for functioning in between 10 pm to 6 am regardless of their quality pay or any type of ceiling. But after the 7th Pay Commission record and when the DoPT provided a workplace memorandum dealing with a ceiling, several security division workers are denied of NDA currently.” They state that a number of security classification team such as terminal masters, train controllers and various other elderly managers function similarly hard, nevertheless, this ceiling and pay degree limitation have actually separated them right into 2 groups – NDA and non-NDA.
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“So a station master works for 8 hours from 10 pm to 6 am and gets the benefits of NDA because he falls in pay level 7. On the other hand, another station master who is promoted to level 8 or level 9 doesn’t get the benefit despite doing the same duty hour even if he is more experienced than the one of level 7. Isn’t it unjust and discriminatory?” asked Northern Railway All India Station Masters ‘Association basic assistantSumeer Aima
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. Sushil Shally, Ex Chief Controller, Delhi Rail Division, also elevated the comparable problem in regard of controllers.
“The 13th July, 2020 OM doesn’t have any rationale through which it can justify the ceiling. Neither the Railway Ministry’s instruction which puts another restriction of pay level 7. Train controllers are also facing similar issues like station masters’ and I believe it impacts the functioning, motivation level etc. Working against the natural hours must be rewarded irrespective of levels or grade pay,” he stated.
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“When senior officers sleep at home, these safety cadre employees work relentlessly to help people reach their respective destinations safely. The government must consider the functioning of railways different from its other departments and treat them accordingly,” stated All India Train Controllers’ Association (AITCA) ex-assistant basic assistant Manoj Sinha.
