Telangana: Stalemate in talks on new pay scales

Adarsh Nagar: The Telangana State government employees will have to wait for some more time to get new pay scales as the government is still undecided on finalisation of the fitment in the wake of growing demand for more than 30 per cent hike on the basic pay from the Employees unions.

The three-member official committee headed by State Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, which already held a series of meeting with the union leaders has no clue on how to convince the unions on the fitment.

The PRC (Pay Revision Commission) has recommended only 7.5 per cent fitment on the basic pay in its report which has been submitted to the government. Angered at the PRC report, the employees took to the streets and staged dharnas and rallies demanding a decent fitment to all the employees working in the government sector.

During the recently held deliberations, the unions demanded huge fitment and the official committee turned their demand down, saying the State's precarious financial situation would not permit to hike the salaries steep.

The officials said that the government wanted to hold another round of talks with the employees' leaders and explain the challenges before the government to accept their demands. The deliberations would resume in two or three days.

Officials said that the government is not ready to announce the fitment without an understanding between the official committee and the unions as the Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has asked the committee to arrive at a solution before submitting its report to him recently.

The government constituted the three member PRC in May 2018 and the commission took more than 2 years to submit the report. The PRC recommended the government to increase the pay scales from 2018 onwards.