The Akhila Karnataka State Government Employees Federation has urged the State government to immediately constitute a new pay commission headed by a retired High Court judge to revise the salaries of government employees.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had announced a new pay commission during his budget presentation in February this year. However, three months have lapsed after this announcement, but still no commission has been set up. The government has to revise the salary of government employees within the next six months and give interim relief from January 2017 till such time, they said.
The employees are performing the same quantum of work on par with Union government employees. Unfortunately, there is a huge disparity in wages given by the State Government in comparison with the Union government salaries.
Wage revision
As a result of the struggle launched by Akhila Bharat State Government Federation, several States in India have announced pay commissions and the wages are being revised on par with the Union government employees. But, Karnataka is one of the States where government employees are getting a un-revised salaries, they said.
From 1966 to 2011, the government should have revised the salary 10 times, but the government so far has revised salaries only five times.
Hence, there is a huge gap between the salaries of the State government employees and those of Union government employees.
So far, the wage difference was 44 % and now, the Union government has implemented the Seventh Pay Commission which would further widen the gap to 65 %, they said.
This protest was being staged in support of the 6.5 lakh government employees seeking a hike in their salaries on par with that of the Union government employees.
The prices of essential commodities is increasing every quarter and the employees are finding it difficult to meet the basic demands of their families. Thereby, the government should not further delay in constituting a new pay commission, they said.
The members of the federation staged a protest demonstration in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office here and submitted a memorandum addressed to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah here on Thursday.
