Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac said here on Saturday that the new wage structure for more than 5.5 lakh-odd government employees including teachers in the State would come into effect from April 1, 2011.
Inaugurating a seminar on “Development of Kerala and economic structure of the State “ organized by the NGO Association in connection with its 36th State conference, Dr. Isaac said that the Pay Revision Commission would submit the wage recommendations to the government in the first week of December. The Finance Department would complete all formalities for the implementation of the new salary by the second week of January. Subsequently the Accountant General would look into the feasibility of these recommendations, he said.
The government would take a final decision on the recommendations and announce the new wage scale in the third week of February. Already the Finance Department had held talks with various organizations in this regard. The pay structure of the Central government employees and other public sector units would be referred. There would also be a Cabinet sub committee to look into the issue, Dr. Isaac said.
The Minister said that the government would provide maximum benefit to the employees but within the economic constraints of the State. Nearly 65 per cent of the existing dearness allowance (DA) from July 1, 2004 to July 1, 2009 will be merged with the basic pay of the pay revision.
(As of now the employees get a DA of 78 per cent of the basic pay. A 17 per cent announced by the Centre is also due to them. The new DA of pay revision would be determined by the Finance Department later).
The employees would get the arrears of revised salary from July 1, 2009. This was because the existing wage scale came into effect from July 1, 2004 and the salary structure could be renewed once in five years, Dr. Isaac said.
