2 days on, Himachal govt forced to withdraw notification on disbursement of pending pay hike arrears after protest by employees, pensioners
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TNR Desk
Following opposition from employees and pensioners as well as employee unions, the Himachal Pradesh government has retracted both notifications regarding the payment of arrears, the move coming a day after these were issued.
On Tuesday (March 5, 2024), numerous employee outfits, including the State Secretariat Employees Federation, raised objections regarding the disbursement of arrears related to the Sixth Pay Commission pending from January 1, 2016. The Finance Department has convened a meeting on Wednesday to address the issue.
On Monday, the state government had issued orders to disburse arrears to state employees and pensioners. Four-and-a-half per cent of the total arrears were scheduled to be paid in the new financial year. Of this, 1.5 per cent was designated for disbursement in March, followed by subsequent monthly payments not exceeding 0.25 per cent of the arrears, to be included with salary and pension payments. Additionally, arrears of dearness allowance were also to be paid at a rate of 1.5 per cent per month, which drew objections from employee unions.
During a meeting chaired by the State Secretariat Employees Federation, its president Sanjeev Sharma expressed dissatisfaction over the criteria set for salary revision and payment of outstanding dearness allowance. Sharma stated that Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu had instructed officials to retract the contentious notification. He said that as per the notification, it would have taken approximately 33 years to settle salary arrears and around five years to clear dearness allowance payments.
