What demand made by JCM Staff Side to the Commission?
In its representation the JCM-Staff Side has submitted that the Commission must determine a ‘need-based minimum pay,’ estimated entirely from the ILC norms and factoring in the 1991 ruling of the Supreme Court to provide for education, medical, recreation, festivals and ceremonies. In addition they have also sought the inclusion of a quantified skill factor on the lines of the VI CPC’s approach for addressing the merger of the Group D staff into Group `C’. They have further stated that unlike the previous CPCs, the Commission should not exclude any of the seven components (five ILS components + additional 25 percent provisioning + skill factor) on the apprehension that it would impose a heavy financial burden on the government.
Based on the various components of the ILC norms and the subsequent additions the JCM -Staff Side has reported that the minimum pay should be ₹26,000 per month, as on 01.01.2014, the date from which it wants the Commission’s recommendations to be implemented. The prices used for the calculation are stated to be the retail prices prevailing in New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar, Trivandrum and Bangalore, as on 01.01.2014. The JCM-Staff Side has argued that this estimation of minimum pay is still on the lower side. This is on the basis of their argument that the 15th ILC norms need to be revised for including old and dependent parents as additional consumption units.