7th Pay Commission: Central govt employees unions defer July 11 strike; panel to look into demands

New Delhi: Central government employees' unions Wednesday deferred by four months their proposed indefinite strike from July 11 against 7th pay panel's recommendations after government agreed to set up a high-level committee to look into their grievances.

"We have decided to defer our indefinite strike by four months against pay commission's recommendations as government today assured us it would resolve the issues raised by us and refer them to a high-level committee," the convenor of National Joint Council of Action (NJCA) of central government employees' unions Shiv Gopal Mishra told PTI.

The government decided to set up a high-level committee after the representatives of the unions met Home Minister Rajnath Singh earlier in the day.

The committee will look into issues raised by various unions of central government employees involving pay scales and other recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission.

The NJCA is an umbrella organisation of various Central Government employees? unions, including Railways, post and telegraph and defence.

Mishra said, "We have been assured by the government that it will resolve the issues shortly. In view of the assurance, we have decided to defer the strike for four months."

"A new high-level committee will soon be set up to look into the grievances raised by the employee unions," a top government official told PTI.

Expressing dissatisfaction over various recommendations of the Pay Commission, various central government employees' unions had threatened to go on an indeifinite strike from July 11.

Maintaining that the government has "disappointed" the employees, RSS-affiliate Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), which had announced country-wide district-level protests on July 8 against the pay panel's recommendations, said its agitational programme will be held as per schedule.

"Our district-level protests will continue as planned. We will also hand over protest memorandums to all MPs during the forthcoming Parliament session and will decide the future course of action at our general body meeting in August," Virjesh Upadhyay, general secretary of BMS told PTI.

The BMS has also warned that implementation of 7th pay commission's recommendations may lead to industrial unrest.

Today's meeting of employees' unions with the Union Home Minister was their second with the government on the issue. Earlier, they had met the Group of Ministers chaired by Singh on June 30. The GoM also includes Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu.

The Unions had asked the government to set up a committee to look into the issues raised by them in relation to the pay scales and other recommendations of the Pay Commission.

"The Ministers assured the Union leaders that the issues raised by them would be considered by a high-level Committee," the Finance ministry said in a statement late in the evening.

The NJCA was upset over the "unilateral" announcement of Central government on implementation of 7th Pay Commission's awards. They said the recommended pay hike was the lowest in the last 70 years.

Meanwhile, Mishra who is also general secretary of the All India Railwaymen's Federation (AIRF), comprising 13 lakh employees of the public sector behemoth, expressed the hope the proposed high-level committee will address their concerns. He said the NJCA will review its decision on whether to go on strike after the panel submits its report.