3.25 fitment factor, 7% annual increment: What central govt staff bodies have demanded in 8th pay commission

CEntral authorities employee and pensionary organisations feature demanded an increment in fitment factor in and encashed leave, among others, in the 8th pay commission. The organisations attended the meeting held between the National Council (Staff Side) and Joint Consultative Machinery (NC-JMC) on Wednesday.The meeting held in Delhi on Wednesday discussed several issues, including promotions of employees, boosting annual increments and reinstating the old pension Scheme.What employees' bodies demandedThe person representing Central Government Employees' Confederation, Manjeet Singh Patel, told Economic Times that some of the suggestions to the 8th pay commission include applying a 3.25 fitment factor, introducing either biannual increments or a 7% annual increment instead of the current 3%, and increasing the number of family units considered for basic salary and fitment factor calculations from three to five.He also said that employees are pushing for raising the leave encashment limit at retirement from 300 to 400 days and increasing the fixed medical allowance from ₹1,000 to ₹20,000 per month in areas without a CGHS hospital.Additionally, Patel also advocated for maintaining the pay gap between different employee levels and establishing a streamlined promotion policy across departments.He said that the staff is demanding a better promotion policy since some employees get promoted in a few years, and others don't get promoted even after 15 years.Also read: Centre shares 8th Pay Commission update, gives details on basic pay-DA linkingWhat happened in the meetingFollowing the meeting on Wednesday, C Srikumar, secretary general of All India Defence Employees’ Federation, told Economic Times that the demands of employee associations, including defence, railway, postal etc was discussed in the meeting.The meeting was aimed at finding consensus on issues including minimum basic pay, promotion policies and annual increment, among others, Srikumar was quoted as saying.He also informed that in the coming days, different associations will send their demands related to the 8th pay commission to the JCM.Also read: On 8th pay panel, govt shares key details in Parliament: When will it take effect, and moreIn a post on X, Dr Manjeet Singh Patel, who represents the Central Government Employees’ Confederation, wrote in an X post that the JCM Staff Side held its meeting to submit a common representation on behalf of all central government employees. “It is likely that the final representation will be prepared within the next 10 days,” his post read.Meanwhile, he also said that the issues of employees working in Union Territories and Central Autonomous Bodies will likely not receive any attention since the JCM has no provision for representation from these two groups.