News

Payment of Productivity Linked Bonus to all Eligible Non-Gazetted Railway Employees for the financial year 2016-17

The Ministry of Railways (Central Government) has announced the release of PLB (Payment Linked Bonus) for the employees working in Indian Railways and are eligible for the bonus amount.

Announcement Details

• It is certain that the new bonus was announced by the Railway Ministry officially via statement released on 20^th. September 2017.
• The sanction of the bonus amount was given by The President after the approval by the Railway Ministry for the financial year 2016-17.

Beneficiary Candidates

• It is certain that the central government and Railway Ministry has already made it very clear that the payment of the bonus amount will only be offered to the employees of Indian Railways.
• It is also certain that the Railway will be offering this bonus payment to the employee who belongs to the Non-Gazetted official rank in the department.

Key Features

• According to the sanctions made it is certain that the Government has announced to offer 78 days PLB bonus to the employees.
• The bonus will be offered to each employee who is non-gazetted employee and whose average monthly salary is below INR 7000 per month.
• It is certain that the bonus will not be offered to the employees of RPSF and RPF employees and personnel.
• The ministry will only calculate the bonus amount for the employees for a salary of INR 7000 monthly only.
• It is also certain that for calculating the Bonus amount the railway ministry shall include employees basic pay as per the new revised pay scale under 7CPC 2016.
• The ministry has also made it very clear that to calculate the bonus amount it shall be including Employee DA according to the rates draw under fiscal year 2016.
• It is also certain that the employees who did not face retirement or suspension and were regular for their services during fiscal year 2016-17 will be paid PLB equivalent to Rs 17951/.
• It is also certain that the amount of Rs 17951/ as PLB will also be paid to any employee who was regular and presently on leave officially.
• For all other eligible employees it is certain that PLB shall be calculated on the basis of the norms mentioned under the instructions by the Railway Ministry.
• It is also certain that according to the provisions mentioned under rules 909 & 908 for PF for Indian railway employees the PLB amount can be paid directly in the account of SRPF who are entitled for PLB.
• It is also certain that according to the additional statements made by the Ministry of railways, the disbursement of the bonus amount will be done on the basis of seniority within the department.
• The Railway Ministry shall follow the same structure for the Bonus amount disbursement as it does when depositing the salary for the employees every month.
• It is also certain that the government has announced that the PLB shall be offered to the employees before the beginning of the Dushera or Diwali Puja vacations for the year 2017.

Set Budget for PLB

The Ministry of Railways has estimated an overall budget for of INR 2245.145 crore for the fiscal year 2016-17.

Conclusion

It is certain that with the implementation of the PLB the Railway Ministry aims to motivate the employees to help them offer better and improved services in coming time.

Other 

1. Bonus order to Regular employees and GDS employees
2. RAS/ RTC/ RPSC Salary Pay Scale  Pay Band in Rajasthan

Bonus order to Regular employees and GDS employees

The Postal Department – Government of India has issued a notification stating the sanction of the Productivity Linked Bonus offer for its employees of regular and Gramin Dak Seva (GDS) departments for fiscal year 2016-17.

Announcement Details

• It is certain that the Postal Department made the announcement after the sanction of PLB by the President of the country on 18^th September 2017.
• The sanction letter was forward by Postal service department to various departmental officials including Chief postmaster, GM, Dy. Accounts and PTC Director’s.

Beneficiary Candidates

• According to latest updates the new sanction implemented is set to offer bonus benefits to non-gazetted employees of the Postal department of the country.
• It is also certain that under the new bonus implementation the Gram Dak Seva employees (GDS) will also be entitled for the bonus amount for the year 2016-17.

Key Features

• It is certain that under the new implementation the postal department shall calculate the PLB for 60 days for its employees belonging to D,C and B Group of GDS and postal department.
• It is also certain that only employees who have a record of maintaining regular job attendance for fiscal year 2016-17 shall be entitled for bonus amount.
• It is also certain that the calculation of PLB bonus amount will be done on the basis of 6^th revised CPC 2016 for salaries equivalent to around Rs 7000 monthly, even if the salary exceeds the set limit.
• In case of suspended and expired employee for financial year 2016-17, the bonus will be applicable on the basis of the conditions mentioned in the clarification letter.
• If retired or resigned employee then he or she will also be entitled for the bonus amount of the retirement or termination dates are within the present fiscal year of 216-17.
• GDS employees will be offered with PLB calculated on the basis of DA, regularity in duty monthly average and DA drawn between 1^st April 2016 to 31^st March 2017 average.
• The PLB will be offered to employees who are temporary and substitutes in D group as Postmen will be entitled for receiving the bonus amount as per the norms mentioned.
• Ex-gratia bonus amount will be paid to employees who have joined their duty as fresh or for a short period for the year 2016-17.
• GDs who are presently not the working employee of postal services or have retired (Voluntarily or naturally) will also be entitled for PLB bonus amount.
• Casual labors who have been employed for at least 8 hours on daily basis for last three years in a row will be offered with ad-Hoc bonus on RS 1200 basic pay.
• The budget for the implementation of the Bonus amount will be prepared and submitted by the accounts department in near time.

Other Scheme

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Booking Process of JioPhone from 24th August Online

Jio Phone is a feature phone which was launched by the Reliance Jio recently. This phone is available at free of cost but with an initial refundable deposit. Its main feature is that it will come with 4G VoLTE. It is one of the first branded feature phones that is going to feature 4G out of the box in India.

Important Dates (Launch Date, Booking Date And Delivery Date)

As for the launch of Jio Phone, it got launched on 21^st July 2017. The bookings shall commence from 24^th August onwards. 24^th August 2017 is the date from when the online booking begins. You can expect that the phones will start to get delivered from September onwards.

The company has announced that the Beta testing shall commence from August 15 onwards. This means that it will be made available from August 15^th itself but that window for Beta testing will be very short. At this stage it will be available only for a handful of people. If all goes well then the doors for pre-orders will open from 24^th August itself.

Jio Phone Features And Specification

• Display: The phone will have a 2.4’’ QVGA screen. The screen won’t have any touch feature. The display will feature merely 240 x 320 pixels.
• Design: It will also have a bar body. The body will also have a text keypad. It is just like any other feature phone available in the market right now. It will be black in colour.
• Bluetooth: It will come with NFC feature. It will allow you to pay online via various channels. Also, it will feature Bluetooth v 4.10. However, it won’t have USB OTG or Infrared.
• Add ons: Other features that this phone will have include torch light, microSD card slot, FM radio and voice command support. The voice command supports 22 Indian languages (which the phone also supports otherwise).
• Chipset: Both Qualcomm and Spreadtrum have powered some units of the chipset in this phone. So in some units you may find Spreadtrum chipsets while others may have a Qualcomm unit.
• Internet: The phone comes with a web browser, PM’s Mann Ki Baat broadcaster, Facebook and such features but it does not feature or support WhatsApp at the moment.
• Music: You can also play music on this phone via Jio Music and there are other features which you can use in this phone via the Jio App. The calling feature is free for life time.
• SIM slot: The phone will support only a single GSM SIM. The phone won’t support 2G only 3G and 4G connections shall be supported. Also, it will have 4G India Band 40.
• OS: It will feature KaiOS. This OS is basically used in most feature phones. It is the fork version of Mozilla Firefox for the Windows PC.
• Internal Memory: It will come with a 512MB RAM but the internal memory will be 4GB. You can expand the memory using microSD slot (up to 128 GB only).
• Camera: It will not have a front camera. There shall be a rear camera but there won’t be any flash.

How to Register for JioPhone Online

• Go to http://www.jiofreephone.com/  over there you will see the big banner with the phone either click on that banner and go to the new page or visit here directly – http://www.jiofreephone.com/jio-keep-me-posted/ 
• Fill out your name, email, phone number and pin code and read the terms and conditions before finally submitting the form. You will get a success message.
• You might also receive an email or a SMS soon from Jio which will tell you that their team will contact you shortly. If you get a call receive it and they will give you the further details.

Jio Phone Plan and Security Deposit

You can recharge this phone for Rs. 153 for which you will get 500MB of free data each day for 28 days. You can also do a Rs. 24 or Rs. 54 recharge which will give you two days and seven days data respectively. You also have to deposit Rs. 1500 initially as a security, which is refundable after 3 years.

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Rs.10000 Advance in the form of Cash Payout to Central Government employees

In order to meet the increasing demand of cash the Union Finance Ministry has announced that the central government employees would be given an advance salary of Rs.10000 in cash by the 23^rd of November.  This amount is being given to the central government employees as an advance part salary for the month of November.

The government is aware of the fact that people are running out of cash due to the demonization and there is liquid cash crisis among the people of the country. So help out people in this situation the Ministry has decided to pay certain part of the salary of the government employee in advance and in the form of cash. The payment is be done by November 23^rd.

The President has already released the part of the salary that is to be paid in advance to the central government employees. Apart from the ones who have opted out of this will be given the money in cash so that they can utilize the money. The amount that will remain due after paying the advance will be credited to the bank accounts of the employee in the last working day of this month.

Reasons behind this decision

• The two reasons behind this decision taken by the Central government is to, one ease the pressure on the banks and another to provide cash to the people to reduce their inconvenience.
• It has been more than a week now that the demonization has taken place and still there is lack of liquid cash flow in the country. Due to this a lot of people are facing problem and not being able to buy and meet their expenses.
• Banks on the other hand are excessively crowded and are still running out of cash. So to ease the situation a little bit the central government employees are being given a part of their salary in cash and in advance.

Options for Employees

If a central government employee does not want his or her salary in advance then he or she has to inform their department heads and also submit a form for the same. The last date for refusing the advance salary as on the 18^th of this month. For those who opt out of this option, their salary accounts will be credited as usual with their respective salary amount on the last working day of this month

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Two Years Bonus For Central Government Employee 

The minimum wage of the Non-Farm workers will be increased by the Central Government of India. The minimum wage of the non-farm workers was Rs 246 per day earlier and it will be increased to Rs 350 per day.

Reason behind Minimum Wage Increase

The reason behind increasing the minimum wage of Non-Farm workers is the continuous threat given by the Trade Unions. The Trade Unions recently threatened about going on a strike on 2^nd September, 2016. But the government has tried to appease the Trade Unions by declaring the hike in minimum wage on 30^th August, 2016.

The government also announced that the workers will get the bonus for the last two financial years as per revised regulations. This recent increase will affect the bonus of the workers of financial year 2014-15 and 2015-16. The central government amended the bonus and they have urged that this Bonus Amendment Act will be effected very strictly.

The Indian Government also assured that they would take necessary steps for resolving pending cases on payment of bonus in the courts. It is likely that the Non-Farm workers will collectively get a bonus amount of Rs 1,920 crore yearly.

Vital events behind Minimum wage increase

In the recent years, the inter-ministerial group of India had several important meetings with Central Trade Unions. The Trade Unions placed their demands in the recent meetings and mainly the demands were about labor related and other economic policy related. Actually, the Central Government got to know about the demands and made decisions according to the demands.

The decision of reviewing and increasing the wages was taken after several discussions at the meeting of the Minimum Wage Advisory Board. The labor minister of India was also involved in the meeting.

The states will be strictly advised to register contract worker and their staffing agencies. It will be mandatory for the states to implement this procedure. If any contractor conducts any inappropriate act, they will have to face appropriate action for their violation.

Several sectors such as Anganwadi, Mid-Day Meal and Asha, etc. will be given social security benefits by the Indian Government. The issues of giving social security benefits will be handled by a committee.

Government Plans for appeasing with Trade Unions

The government is also planning to merge associate banks of SBI bank with the parent bank. But the government assured that this merging will not be objected by the Trade Unions because the government thinks that the service condition of the employees will not be affected by it.

Overall 10 central trade unions called for a one day strike on India on Septeber 2, 2016 and thus the government was forced to increase the minimum pay of the non-farm workers. This will obviously affect the strike call according to the Government.

Details about Minimum Wage Increase

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7th Pay Commission Latest News: Govt. employees likely to get huge pay checks by June July 2016

The new 7^th pay commission which was announced last year will soon s=come into effect as per latest developments. The employees of the central govt. will get their hiked salaries and other allowances from June or July of this year. This announcement has brought a sigh of relief to the lakhs of central govt. employees who were waiting for their salary increment right from the date of announcement of the new pay commission. Right now, the central govt. employees who are currently working or who have retired and are getting pension from the central govt. are getting benefits as per the 6^th pay commission. The 7^th pay commission is ready to get implemented by June or July of 2016.

• Wait over for central govt. employees

As per the sources of the Finance Ministry, the secretariats are reviewing the recommendations of the 7^th pay commission and have agreed on passing and implementing them by the end of the month of June. If this does not happen, then by far the process may extend till mid July. According to internal sources of the Finance Ministry, no such alterations were being made in the 7^th pay commission drafted recommendations. This means the central govt. employees will have to wait for about two months to get their hiked salaries as well as allowances.

• How the additional financial burden will be borne by the Govt.?

After the full implementations of the new 7^th pay commission, there will be a huge financial burden on the centre. An estimated amount of Rs. 1.02 crore as financial burden to implement the 7^th CPC is calculated. The 7^th CPC will affect the salary structures of the central govt. employees from 1^st Jan, 2016. So even after the implementation of this pay commission in June – July, the centre must clear this backlog of six, seven months. AS per sources from the Finance Ministry, the salary and the pensions will be cleared at first. There is also a plan of providing arrears. After that the additional allowances will be cleared.

• Some important facts about the new 7^th central pay commission:

• Fat salary checks to be expected in the new 7^th central pay commission

The central govt. employees are already eyeing on the fat salary checks they are going to get after the total implementations of the new pay commission which is going to happen around June end or within first two weeks of July. They are expecting a salary hike of nearly 2.5 times after the implementation of new CPC. In addition to this, they will be getting arrears for the six months from 1^st Jan, 2016.

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Centre admits employees not happy with minimum pay recommended Pay Commission

The central govt. has admitted that the employees who work under them are not happy with the proposed minimum pay as per the 7^th pay commission. According to the employees working in different departments of the central government, the minimum pay that was set to be 18 thousand in the pay commission released in the November month of 2015 is not sufficient enough and is very low compared to other pay scales. Most employees who have shown their sadness with the pay commission decision belong to low levels i.e. D grades and they are demanding a hike in the minimum salary of a central government employee from the implementation of the next pay scale.

Initial decision of the 7^th pay commission regarding the highest and lowest salary 

In the report drafted by the pay commission working committee, it was decided that after the new pay commission gets implemented, the minimum salary that a central government employee or an employee working under any Govt. undertaking public organization will be Rs. 18, 000 per month. And the maximum salary that will be given by the govt. will be Rs. 2.5 lakh pr month, to the ranks of cabinet secretariats, auditor generals and defense chiefs. Earlier in the previous pay commission, i.e. the 6^th pay commission, the minimum salary was Rs. 6,600 per month.

Why the Govt. is under pressure of increasing the minimum salary?

The central government is under huge pressure of hiking the minimum salary of the central govt. employees which was initially decided to be Rs. 18,000 per month. First of all, the trade unions, labor organizations and the employees associations of the various departments have shown dissatisfaction regarding the minimum salary in the 7^th pay commission. Another pressure is the upcoming elections in various states and the central government does not want to lose votes on this issue. So there is a talk going on to have a balanced minimum salary.

 What is the current status regarding the increase of the minimum salary?

Currently, the negotiators from the finance ministry are holding discussions and meetings with the trade organization leaders and forming a committee to come to a point and fix a new minimum salary for the employees. The demand of the employees’ unions for the minimum salary range from Rs. 24,000 to Rs. 26, 000 per month. However, the centre is keen in coming to a compromise and has not yet come to a fixed solution. Reports are there that that the centre will settle down for nearly Rs. 20, 000 a month as the minimum salary.

Problems that may arise due to hike in the minimum salary

As per economists, there is already a financial burden coming in the way of the central govt. after the new pay commission gets implemented. An extra financial burden of Rs. 1.02 lakh crore is already going to happen. If the minimum salary slab is raised further, it will be very difficult for the centre.

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No Salary Hike For BSNL Employees In 7^th Pay Commission

During a period when government workers are enthusiastically sitting tight for the 7th Pay Commission, there is a terrible news for the employees of the telecommunication giant BSNL. Employees of BSNL got the news few days ago that the BSNL employees won’t get the advantages if BSNL keeps running in loss.

Reason

According to the report of Zee Media, “Chairman of BSNL & MD Anupam Shrivastava declared that the workers of the organization won’t get the advantage of the pay hike as declared in the seventh pay commission 2016 if the organization keeps running in loss.” Reportedly, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited has been running in loss since the past four years. Prior, reports came to the front that 7th Pay Commission will be deferred and will be applied from June/July and subsequent to that, one more frustrating news came for the BSNL employees. Sources declared that Central government might actualize the 7th Pay Commission subsequent to the implementation of the OROP plan. However, Government of India issued notice for the pending scheme of OROP in the month of November a year ago, it is yet to be actualized. Sources said that the veterans of Army need some change into the present type of the OROP plan however Central Government has not yet acknowledged their requests.

“It is the most pivotal year ever for BSNL, on the grounds that 2017 will be the financial year when our pay will be modified as the 3rd PRC, and let me tell you … unless we’re productive the pay is not going to be modified,” Shrivastava was cited as saying. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited’s pay cost is about 15,000 crore rupees, which is over the top of the numerous government and private PSUs.

Continue Loss

The Public Sector Unit, which was running on loss since the past four years, earned a benefit of about 672 crore rupees for the year 2014-15 contrasted with a loss of 691 crore rupees in the past financial. The company is hoping to earn the benefit further, and inside few years (2018-19), the company is focussing to accomplish net profit, as indicated by Shrivastava, who additionally stated that the year 2017 is an imperative year and the company needs to ensure that this financial year loss and profit account looks great.

“I have told to all my employees that their main obligation is to earn the benefit. Those days are gone when we used to sit and just sign on the files. Revenue was not your prime obligation,” Shrivastava further included. BSNL has employee strength of about 2.35 lakhs and it is really very bad news for them.

Loss Table

Pay commission award not to be implemented before OROP

The sources from the Finance Ministry, Government of India, have revealed that it has no plans to start the new 7^th pay commission, before the proposed apply of One Rank One Pension (OROP). They have stated that their first priority is to deliver the OROP plan and after that will move on to the implementation of the 7^th Pay Commission. The OROP is a burning issue of the nation and it needs to be addressed first.

The issue of OROP notification

The first notification regarding the new OROP came along with the declaration of the new pay commission, in November 2015. That was the time when there was a huge protest going on for the implementation of similar pension slabs for the retired defense personals, those whore have retired years ago and those who are retiring currently. The defense veterans protested some discrepancies in their pension system and pushed for same pension for same ranks. They staged hunger strikes, rallies and dharnas throughout the country. There were also instances of returning awards and gallantries by the defense veterans.

What the new 7^Th pay commission have to offer?

According to the proposed 7^th pay commission, the minimum salary of a central government employee will be Rs. 18,000 where as the highest salary package will be Rs. 25 lakh per month. Nearly 23.55 % of salary hike is expected after it gets implemented. The pensions of the retired central govt. employees will also get hiked by a sharp 24 %. The health insurance policies will be renewed. The gratuity after death is proposed to be doubled. For the defense personals, the differences between the pensions of past retired and currently retired defense personals will be removed and parity will be brought.

7th pay commission on the OROP issue

The Govt. is dedicated to address the OROP issue first, before staring any implementation of the new pay commission. As per the plan, the salaries and other allowances will be restructured for those who serve in the defense services. There is a proposal to hike the Military Service Pay and the Siachen allowance. The gratuity after death will also be doubled and more health benefits is supposed to be provided. The policy of the Short Service Commission in the defense force is also reorganized.

Projected pension slabs of different ranks in Defense services in the new OROP of the 7^th pay commission:

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7^th CPC Implementation can happen by middle of 2016 and not be pushed out too late 

On Sept. 2015 a new Pay Commission was formed under the committee bench headed by Retired Supreme Court Justice, Shree A. K. Mathur which submitted its report to the Finance Minister of India, Arun Jaitley. According to committee sources, this new pay commission recommendations will get implemented from 1^st Jan 2016. This new pay commission will be beneficial to nearly 47 lakh central govt. employees currently serving, including employees of public units, universities, etc. In addition to this, approximately 52 lakh retired pensioners will have a improved pension structure and retirement benefits. Not only the salary structures will get revised, the basic and other allowances received by the central govt. employees will also be improvised.

According to sources, the minimum salary of a central govt. employee after the 7^th pay commission gets implemented will be Rs. 18,000. The maximum salary will rise up to Rs. 2.5 lakh for the Cabinet Secretaries, which currently stands at nearly Rs. 90,000. The employees are supposed to get 23.55 % hike in basic salary and allowances and there will be sharp increase of 24% in pensions also. The overall rise in net salary is calculated to be about 16% for the current serving employees. However the old yearly increment rate is kept at 3% per annum. To give away these new pay structures, sources indicate the financial burden will be about Rs. 1.02 lakh crore. This amount will be borne by both Central Budget and Railway Budget- Rs. 73,650 crore and Rs. 28,450 crore respectively.

With new salary structures and pension improvements, the 7^th pay commission also brought several other reforms. In response to the movement by defense personals for One Rank One Pension, the commission decided to bring parity between the pensions of the defense personals retired earlier to the pensions of the current retiring personals. The allowances in defense services like the Military Service Pay (MSP), Siachen special allowance, etc are hiked sharply. The officers who are under Short Service Commission in the forces may exit the force between 7- 10 years of service. The gratuity structures are also revised.

According to Rakesh Arora who is the Managing Director of Macquarie India, the new 7^th pay commission will get implemented by mid 2016 only. These implementations must not get delayed further. As the financial impact due to this new pay structures will be very large in margin, the govt. is trying its level best to implement it efficiently without any rush. An extra total of Rs. 1.02 lakh crore financial impacts are calculated to happen after its implementations, so it will be wise for the govt. not to go in one shot and do it in stages. According to sources the govt. will still try to keep the fiscal deficit below 3.5 % of GDP, which is currently 3.9 %. The new pay commission announced that the salary hike will get started from January 2016 where as other allowances will get implemented later that will decrease some burden. This strategy will help the govt. to make the implementations efficiently and to keep the fiscal deficit under control.