A large section of officers and employees at central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) are set for a massive pay hike bonanza on the lines of what government employees received as per the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission.
According to a report in the Financial Express, around 100 of the 244 CPSEs operating in the country will be eligible for this pay revision as per the criteria and recommendations of the 3rd Pay Revision Committee (PRC) set up by the Department of Public Enterprises. While the pay hike for CPSE officers would cost these firms Rs 7,000 crore, a similar revision in salaries for non-officer staff would result in an outgo of Rs 10,000 crore, the report said.
The revised salaries are likely to take retrospective effect, from January 2017.
As per the PRC suggestions, the pay hike a company offers should not exceed 15 per cent (on sum of basic pay, stagnation increments and industrial dearness allowance) subject to the ability of the firms concerned to bear the consequent financial burden. The pay hike can be fully implemented by CPSEs if the additional financial impact due to salary revision for officers is not more than their average profit before tax (PBT) of the last 3 years.
If the financial burden is between 20-40 per cent of the average PBT, then, the pay increase will be 5-10 per cent. However, the pay hike will be nil for executives of CPSEs if the additional cost due to salary revision is over 40 per cent of their average PBT of last 3 years.
According to the Financial Express report, the PRC has recommended a minimum pay of Rs 30,000 per month, up from Rs 12,600 per month, for executives and a maximum of Rs 3.7 lakh for CMDs, up from Rs 1.25 lakh, for Schedule A CPSEs.
CPSEs are categorised into different schedules depending on their profits, with highest being Schedule A, followed by B, C and D. The pay increase varies across the CPSE categories.
The report, citing sources, adds that the DPE has already circulated a draft cabinet note on the CPSE pay revision for inter-ministerial consultations. After pay revision of officers are implemented, the CPSEs, individually, would negotiate with the respective employee unions on the pay hike for workers.
The total workforce with the 244 operating CPSEs is estimated at 12.3 lakh, of which 3.8 lakh are officers and the rest non-officer staff. An estimate of the staff strength of the 100 firms that meet the norms for pay hike was not immediately available.
However, employees at loss-making CPSEs with huge manpower such as BSNL (2.11 lakh), Steel Authority of India (88,600) and Air India (12,800) won’t get a pay hike. Employees at other loss-making CPSEs, including Bharat Heavy Electricals (42,000), may get a less generous hike than others, owing to the tough affordability criteria laid down by the 3rd PRC.
