Initial pay fixation of re-employed ex-servicemen-post below Commissioned Officer Rank

Initial pay fixation of re-employed ex-servicemen-post below Commissioned Officer Rank

Initial pay fixation of re-employed ex-servicemen who held post below Commissioned Officer Rank in Defence Forces, retired before attaining the age of 55 years and have been appointed on re-employment basis in civilian posts in Railways etc.,

No. II/35/Part XIV

Dated: 21/12/2017

The Secretary,
Ministry of Defence,
Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare,
[D(Res-I)],
South Block,
New Delhi

Kind attention: Joint Secretary (ESW)

Dear Sir,

Sub: Initial pay fixation of re-employed ex-servicemen who held post below Commissioned Officer Rank in Defence Forces, retired before attaining the age of 55 years and have been appointed on re-employment basis in civilian posts in Railways etc., – reg.

Ref: DoP&T OM F.No. 3/3/2016-Estt. (Pay-II) dated 18th October, 2017.

The Defence Forces Personnel (PBORs) have been put to grave injustice as their last pay drawn at the time of retirement from Defence Forces has not been protected on their re-employment in the Central Government Departments (Railways etc.,).

However, such of those Defence Forces Personnel retired from the Defence Forces and got re¬employed in the Public Sector undertakings in the country have the benefit of pay fixation on last pay drawn at the time of their retirement from the Armed Forces. This reveals that the Force Personnel re¬employed in the Railways and other Central Government Departments have been discriminated against.

The National Federation of Indian Railwaymen (NFIR), a premier Federation of Railway’ employees had taken up the subject matter at the level of Railway Ministry in one of the PNM meetings, demanding pay re-fixation in favour of re-employed Defence Forces Personnel on the basis of last pay drawn particularly those who were re-employed on and after 01/01/2006. Conceding the Federation’s demand, the Railway Ministry vide OM No. E(G)2013/EM 1-5 dated 07/12/2016 had sent proposal to the DoP&T, but however, the same was turned down. In this connection, Federation encloses a copy of Railway Ministry OM dated 07/12/2016 addressed to DoP&T together with the reply received from DoP&T vide OM No. 1213833/2016-Estt. (Pay-II) dated 21st February 2017.

The NFIR has now learnt that the DoP&T vide OM F.No. 3/3/2016-Estt. (Pay-II) dated 18th October, 2017 has sent proposal to the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare, (Sena Bhawan) South Block, New Delhi, suggesting that single methodology for pay fixation of all the re-employed pensioners including the PBORs, Commissioned Officers, Ex-Combatant Clerks/Storeman etc., needs to be evolved, superseding the previous instructions contained in DoP&T OM dated 31st July 1986. The Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare, is consulting the re-employed Defence Forces Personnel for eliciting their Views before sending its views to DoP&T for its consideration.

NFIR now suggests to the Ministry of Defence to consider, the following valid points for taking up the matter with the DoP&T:-

(a) Considering the role of Defence Forces Personnel for safeguarding the Nation’s integration, these personnel deserve to be given pay fixation on the basis of their last pay drawn on re-employment in the Railways and other Central Government Departments.

(b) Their pension needs to be totally ignored as the pension is the social security net in recognition to their loyal services to the nation.

(c) The PBORs are not the Persomiel of high rankings with higher wages, therefore their case needs to be considered with greater sympathy and for the said reason their last pay drawn at the time of retirement needs to be treated as entry pay on re-employment in Railways and Central Government Departments.

(d) Alternatively, the number of years service rendered by the PBORs in Armed Forces be taken into account for granting pay fixation duly adding equal number of increments to the minimum pay of the re-employed post. This can be made applicable to all PBORs who have joined Central Government Departments after 01/01/2006.

(e) It is also proposed that in those cases of PBORs retired before attaining the age of 55 years and got re-employed in Government services, their initial pay on re-employment may be fixed at the minimum of the scale of pay prescribed for the post and after fixing the pay, in case the initial pay so fixed, is found to be less than the last pay drawn in the Armed Forces, all such cases may be treated as “cases of undue hardship” and in those cases, their pay may be re-fixed at higher stage duly granting one increment for each year of service rendered in the Armed Forces so as to bring their initial pay at par with the pre-retirement pay. However, the pension already drawn by these. Personnel need not be meddled with.

NFIR trusts that the above suggestions may kindly be considered for inclusion in the proposal to be sent to the DoP&T. We shall be grateful if copy of the proposal sent to DoP&T is made available to the Federation to enable us to follow up the matter.

DA/As above

Yours faithfully
Sd/-
(Dr. M. Raghavaiah)
General Secretary

Source: NFIR