7th Pay Commission: Major update on performance appraisal, why CG employees must worry

New Delhi, July 04: Even as Central Government employees await good news on the 7th Pay Commission, there is a major update regarding appraisals.

The government has decided to take a major call on retiring several employees for non-performance. Moreover the government would also take a call soon on the performance appraisals.

Once this comes into force, employees are mostly likely to get an appraisal based on their performance. This would have a direct bearing on employees who are aged 50 years or have completed 30 years in service.

While their hikes and appraisals would depend on their performance, the government would also look to retire such persons compulsorily. It may be recalled that the government had recently retired several officials in the IT department for either lack of performance or misconduct.

Further the Department of Personnel and Training will do the replacement of retired individuals through a lateral entry system. The DoPT has said that there are around 7 lakh posts vacant and through the lateral entry system, this would be brought down to 7,000.

This move comes in the wake of the government launching the online probity management system. It is based on this system that promotions and hikes will also be decided. The idea is to weed out non-performers. In future, public feedback and ratings would matter while promotions are being awarded.

Better promotions would depend on how the ratings and public feedback is. The Department of Personnel and Training has prepared a full grading system and a proposal has been sent to the government in this regard.

Up to 80 per cent of the weightage will be on public feedback for promotion. This would apply to better appraisal of government employees in the departments where they are directly involved with the public. Grading of officials by the people and their experience during government work will be available in the public domain. The grading will decide on the salary and promotion of the people. The proposed system is being implemented on the basis of what the 7th Pay Commission had recommended. The pay panel had also modified the Modified Assured Career Progression process.