The Tenth Pay Revision Commission, which is set to submit its final report soon, has not reportedly considered any proposal to curb organisational freedom of State government employees and teachers or revamp their work schedule.
Official sources told The Hindu here that the thrust of the final report was on making suggestions for enhancing the functional efficacy of the civil service through optimum utilisation of human resource and toning up the administration by infusing IT enabled services and also taking the employees into confidence.
Imposing restrictions on the functioning of service organisations does not come within the purview of the commission.
The service rules in force are sufficiently armed to regulate the organisational activities of employees and they are expected to function within a specific code of conduct.
Restrictions are already in place to ensure that such activities are not affecting the public service delivery mechanism.
The onus to enforce the rules was on the government, sources said.
The annual work schedule is being drawn by the government and hence making alterations was its prerogative. The commission’s first report had clarified that it does not subscribe to the five-day week mode, mainly because the State has a large number of local holidays in addition to those declared by the Centre. Moreover, making changes in the holiday schedule calls for a political decision and hence has not figured for a thorough discussion, sources said.
The same applies in the case of the academic calendar too.
Art and cultural activities are considered to be an integral part of the personality and character development of a student.
These could not be seen in isolation and the government would have to take a policy decision to defer it to the annual vacation.
This would again upset the training of teachers as well as paper valuation schedule and such others.
All such activities have to be confined with the academic calendar and could not be pushed beyond a year’s schedule, sources said.
The commission is bound to function within the limits of its terms of reference.
As per the norms, the draft of the final report would be prepared and placed before the members for discussion.
It may be cleared unanimously or the members could record their dissent.
Such procedures would be completed soon and the report would be submitted to the government by early next month, sources said.
