JCM STAFF SIDE UNITY SHOULD BE FOR STRUGGLE

EDITORIAL POSTAL CRUSADER NOVEMBER-2014

JCM STAFF SIDE UNITY SHOULD BE FOR STRUGGLE

History of Central Government Employees reveals that Government has taken undue advantage to deny the justified demands of the Central Government Employees, whenever there was disunity among the JCM staff side organizations. On the contrary, whenever staffside stood solidly united the Government was compelled to concede the legitimate justifys of the employees to a great extent.

After Fifth Pay Commission recommendations, the JCM National council staffside submitted to Government a common charter of demands for modifications of the recommendations of the Pay Commission, which included upward revision of fitment formula and removal of certain glaring anomalies. When Government refused to concede it , notice for indefinite strike was given and finally the Government had to appoint a high-power Group of Ministers Committee under the chairmanship of then Home Minister Shri.Indrajith Gupta and negotiated with the staffside. In the negotiations also the staffside took a united uncompromising stand which ultimately resulted in Government accepting the demand for 40% fitment formula and some other important demands.

Unfortunately, when the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations were submitted to Government, the JCM National Council Staffside miserably failed to take such a firm and united stand and no serious agitational programme was conducted demanding modification of the retrograde recommendations. Instead the dominant leadership of JCM staffside took a compromising stand and depended only on negotiated settlement , without mobilizing the entire rank and file membership behind the demands. Ultimately Government took advantage of this weakness of the leadership and unilaterally announced the implementation of the 6th CPC recommendations, without conceding majority of the genuine demands raised by the staffside during negotiations. Faulty formula adopted for calculation of Need Based Minimum Wage , glaring disparity in fitment and fixation formula between lower level officials and Group- A officers, unscientific pay band and grade pay system and serious anomalies arising out of it , MACP anomalies everything remained as such which could not be settled even after seven years.

Again , when the Government announced the New Contributory Pension Scheme with effect from 01.01.2004 for the new entrants in Central Government Services without any consultation with the JCM National Council Staffside, the dominant leadership of the JCM staffside did not protest and kept silent. This has emboldened the Government to go ahead with the implementation of the neo-liberal pension reforms. Had the entire JCM Staffside including Railways, Defence and Confederation taken a united stand to oppose the New Pension Scheme and given call for serious agitational programmes including indefinite strike the Government would not have dared to implement the NPS. Of course , Confederation of Central Government Employees and workers opposed the New Pension Scheme and has gone to the extent of conducting one day strike. JCM leadership raised the demand for roll-back of NPS after a very long time and by that time Government succeeded in fully implementing the scheme.

Confederation of Central Government Employees and workers has always stood for unity among the Central Government Employees .When confederation submitted a 15 point charter to the UPA Government in 2011 demanding appointment of 7 th CPC , 5 year wage revision , Merger of 50% DA, Inclusion of Gramin Dak Sevaks under 7th CPC etc, the other major organizations in the JCM were not ready to raise the demands in 2011. Finally confederation was forced to go it alone and conducted series of agitational programmes including Parliament March, one day strike and two days strike. Of course, the lonely struggle conducted by confederation represented the mood of the entirety of Central Government Employees and ultimately the Government was compelled to announce constitution of 7th CPC in the month of September 2013.

Now NDA Government which came to power after General Election has rejected all the main demands of the Central Government Employees which includes merger of DA , Interim Relief , Date of effect from 01.01.2014 , inclusion of GDS in the terms of reference of 7th CPC ,scrapping of New Pension Scheme etc. Further Government declared 100% FDI in Railways and Defence. Public Private Partnership in Railways was also announced in Railway budget. More than five lakhs posts are lying vacant in various Departments out of which about 2.5 lakhs vacancies are in Railways alone. The UPA Government has unilaterally announced the terms of reference of the 7th CPC rejecting the draft proposal submitted by JCM staffside. The memorandum submitted by JCM staffside to the NDA Government for grant of merger of DA and Interim Relief also was totally neglected. The JCM Staffside leadership could not do anything and the employees are suffering. In fact the JCM staffside has become a laughing stock among the employees and its credibility in the eyes of the employees has eroded like anything.

It is in this background , eventhough belatedly , the JCM National Council Staffside has decided to organize a National Convention at New Delhi on 11th December 2014 , to discuss and finalise its strategy to combat the above humiliation meted out by the Government . Better late than never. The decision is well received by the entire Central Government Employees and they are eagerly waiting for the outcome of the convention.

NFPE firmly believes that if the present unity among the JCM staffside organizations is not channelized for building up united struggle including indefinite strike of entire Central Government Employees the National Convention will become a futile exercise and an eye-wash to cool down the growing discontentment among the employees. This shall not happen. We firmly believe in the slogan raised by our late legendary leader Com K.G.Bose- i.e “UNITY FOR STRUGGLE AND STRUGGLE FOR UNITY”. Such a stand alone can restore the lost glory of the fighting potential of the Central Government Employees and also shall regain the lost faith of employees in the JCM staffside leadership. We cannot be a party to any compromise on the genuine and justified demands of the workers. Let us hope that the JCM staffside leadership shall rise up to the occasion.

Source: National Federation of Postal Employees