The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Friday, June 7, 2002, Chandigarh, India

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Salary of board, corpn staff cut
Sarbjit Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 6
Resentment prevails among employees in Punjab as the government has started enforcing the Council of Ministers’ decision to slash the salaries of employees working in state-owned boards, corporations and other PSUs.

Employees in these organisations have started preparing for an agitation starting from tomorrow. There are reports that several organisations of employees will hold demonstrations in front of their head offices tomorrow and a few of them have decided to proceed on a protest leave tomorrow.

There are around 50 PSUs in the state having nearly 1.50 lakh employees on their rolls. Most of the employees of these organisations to be hit by the government decision will suffer a monthly financial loss varying between Rs 1,000 and Rs 5,000 depending on their cadre in the organisation. But in certain departments, such loss to employees will be even up to Rs 8,000 per month, it is learnt.

“Before deciding to slash our salaries, the government should have given all benefits on a par with that of government employees who are entitled for pensionery benefits, government accommodation and job security”, say employees. These benefits are not available in most of the PSUs, they argue.

The shock of significant cut in salaries for employees of these organisations has come simultaneously with the bigger shock of government’s decision to either shut, merge or restructure these organisations in due course by resorting to the process of disinvestment.

Likewise, the PSIEC has rolled back the house rent allowance from 25 per cent to 15 per cent for its employees in Chandigarh and stopped the payment of conveyance allowance that was Rs 1,000 in case of officers owning car and Rs 350 and Rs 200 for those using scooter and bicycle, respectively.

The organisations like the PSEB, the Punjab Mandi Board and several others have started the process to implement the orders, it is learnt. A senior officer of the PFC told TNS that the total loss in gross salary at the upper level in this organisation would be around Rs 4,500 while it would be about Rs 1,500 for lower level employees.

The case of the PSEB is different from other PSUs. There, pay scales and allowances are fixed after holding negotiations with the employees unions concerned after the report of the every pay commission. Except a few categories, employees, especially technical and engineering staff in the PSEB, draw gross salaries higher than that of government employees of their category.

For instance, a Sub Divisional Engineer in the PSEB gets four or five promotional increments after certain period of service. Even there is a difference in their basic salary since 1967 when the then Chairman, Mr Nawab Singh, had made a provision of different pay scales set up for the PSEB employees. Informed sources said the salaries of the PSEB employees following last state pay commission’s report were fixed by adopting a formula of 3.37 point against the state government’s formula of 3.24 point. There is a difference of salary of Rs 4,000 between an executive engineer serving in the PSEB and his counterpart in the government department.

The government has directed the Administrative Secretaries, Managing Directors and others concerned that they would be personally responsible, if they failed to implement the government’s directive with regard to the cut in the pay packet.

The Punjab Chief Secretary, Mr Y.S. Ratra, has written a letter to all Administrative Secretaries concerned that they should restore parity of pay, allowances and perquisites of employees of the PSUs with that of the government employees. Mr Ratra has fixed a deadline to enforce the order.

In fact, there are organisations like PUDA and the Punjab State Industrial Export Corporation which have enforced the government orders. Others are processing the orders to be implemented within a week or so.

Enquiries made by TNS in PUDA have revealed that the cut in the pay packets of different categories of employees is to the tune of Rs 1,000 to Rs 8,000. While top-level officials in this organisation have suffered a financial loss up to the Rs 8,000 level, the lower level employees like peons have suffered a loss of Rs 1,000, according to information available. There was a provision of entertainment allowance of Rs 3,000 for the Additional Chief Administrator in PUDA which had been withdrawn. It was Rs 2,000 in the case of Estate Officer which will now be nil.

The ACA-level officer in PUDA was allowed to get a private house on rent upto Rs 7,500 but now he would be paid house rent allowance as is admissible in case of government employees. In PUDA, employees were getting 25 per cent house rent allowance, which has been brought down to 15 per cent in Chandigarh and 7 per cent in cities like Bathinda, Patiala etc. There was a provision of car allowance up to Rs 1,000 for officer level, Rs 375 for scooter owners and Rs 200 for bi-cycle owners which had been withdrawn.

In fact, employees of all boards, corporations, except a few, have been getting 25 per cent house rent allowance in Chandigarh and elsewhere against the provision of 15 per cent for government employees in Chandigarh and only 7 per cent in the cities such as Bathinda, Sangrur, Mansa and others falling in the lower category.