7th Pay Commission: The mistake CG employees made, which cost them a pay hike

New Delhi, Jan 24: A major protest relating to the 7th Pay Commission was called off by the Central Government employees.

The protests were called off on the assurance given by the Central Government that it would look into their grievances relating to their pay hikes. Now as Budget 2020 approaches, the hopes of the CG employees have gone up and they are keenly watching the developments.

They are expecting that there would be some announcement regarding a pay hike. However, all reports suggest that there would be no pay hike. Instead, the DA would be increased.

The question now is whether the CG employees were right in calling off their protests.

There was an assurance given that the matter would be looked into, but a few weeks later it was said by the Finance Ministry that there is no decision on any pay hike. Several experts that OneIndia spoke with said that the calling off of the protests so early may have not been a good idea. The pressure should have been stepped up and only then would the government considered their demands.

Various rounds of meetings failed and the government never showed any intent of increasing the pay of the CG employees. This has been a crucial demand by them for long. On the other hand, reports trickling in the state that the government may increase the DA by 4 per cent. However, it is not clear whether this would be an announcement made in the Cabinet meeting or the Budget.

The CG employees have been demanding that their basic minimum pay should be increased to Rs 26,000. There were talks that the government is likely to increase it to Rs 21,000, but that never materialised. The 7th Pay Commission had recommended that the basic minimum pay be fixed at Rs 18,000.