The Bengal government on Monday said its employees would be paid in keeping with Seventh Pay Commission recommendations but remained silent on bridging the dearness allowance gap with their central counterparts, leaving staff associations disappointed.
The Seventh Pay Commission will also apply to employees of state-aided institutions, including schools, colleges, universities, civic bodies and panchayats.
Bengal government employees are still receiving salaries recommended under the Sixth Pay Commission although the Centre has announced the Eighth Pay Commission.
"The state cabinet has approved the proposal to set up the Seventh Pay Commission for state government employees and all those working with state-aided organisations. A detailed notification will be issued soon," said Agnimitra Paul, the women & child development & social welfare minister, at Nabanna on Monday after the cabinet meeting.
Once the notification is issued, it will become clear who will head the commission and by when it will be required to submit its recommendations.
While flagging off the Parivartan Rally on March 2 from Raidighi in South 24-Parganas, Union home minister Amit Shah had said that if the BJP was voted to power, it would implement the Seventh Pay Commission within 45 days.
"State government employees, who have done a lot for the Mamata Banerjee government during its 15-year tenure, have been deprived. They are still being paid under the Sixth Pay Commission," Shah had said.
Several organisations representing state government employees are, however, unhappy because the new cabinet did not on Monday announce any decision on clearing their DA dues.
“It’s not the right step to announce the implementation of the pay commission recommendations without bridging the DA gap,” a leader of an employees’ union said.
“The previous government, too, had announced that it would follow the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission without clearing the DA dues. The employees did not like it and voted against the government. In the majority of the seats, the Trinamool Congress was way behind in ballot paper votes.”
According to employees, the state staff’s DA was 18 per cent of their basic pay, while the figure was 60 per cent for their central counterparts.
“We are lagging by 42 per cent. If the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations are accepted without clearing the DA dues, we will be deprived — just like the TMC government had duped us,” an employee said.
The president of the Confederation of State Government Employees, Shyamal Mitra, said: “The new government got the employees to believe that it would make an announcement on clearing their DA dues after the second cabinet meeting, but it failed to produce anything positive for us.”