Express News Service By

NEW DELHI: Unhappy over “meagre pay hike” announced in the Seventh Pay Commission, lakhs of central government employees have threatened to go on strike from July 11.

The Union cabinet approved the 7th Pay Commission’s recommendations hiking salaries of central government employees as well as pensions. The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The recommendations will impact the some 47 lakh employees in the central government and 52 lakh pensioners. A recommendation for minimum pay of Rs 18,000 per month, with the upper ceiling at Rs 225,000 a month, was approved by the cabinet.

Unhappy over the recommendation Shivgopal Mishra, General Secretary, All India Railway Men Federation and Convenor of National Joint Council of Action (NJCA) told reporters, “They have fixed the minimum wage at a meagre Rs 18,000 in the Seventh Pay Commission. In the last Pay Commission, the basic pay was Rs 7,000. They gave Rs 18,000. We are demanding Rs 26,000.”

NJCA is a front formed by six government staff unions and have decided to oppose the hikes given by the 7th Pay Commission.

He further stated that lakhs of government employees, excluding the defence personnel, will go on strike if we do not get some kind of assurance from the government to reconsider the decision.

KKN Kutty, who is president of Confederation of Central Government Employees and general secretary of national coordination committee of pensioners association, said that they had a meeting with a group of ministers, including the Home Minister (Rajnath Singh), Finance Minister (Arun Jaitley) and Railway Minister (Suresh Prabhu) on June 30 evening and they promised us that grievances will be considered.

“We are waiting to hear back on this from the government by July 4 evening or July 5. In our meeting, it was only a verbal commitment. If the government gives us specific details like which committee will review then we will defer the strike,” Kutty said.

The NJCA is also demanding for the withdrawal of the new national pension scheme (NPS), which came into effect from October 2004.

The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the parent body of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, has also expressed its "dissatisfaction" at the 7th Pay Commission's recommendations. But they have not yet decided to go on strike or not.

The Union Cabinet has decided to constitute three separate committees, including one to look into the anomalies likely to arise out of enforcement of the commission's report.

“The two separate committees constituted includes for suggesting measures for streamlining the implementation of National Pension System (NPS) and to look into anomalies likely to arise out of implementation of the Commission's Report,” said an official statement earlier.