UPA moves to fix wage revision in Central PSUs once in 10 yrs, not five

The UPA government is attempting what its predecessor tried and failed: Restricting wage revision of 13.98 lakh unionized workers in Central PSUs to every 10 years without any exception.

The UPA government is attempting what its predecessor tried and failed: Restricting wage revision of 13.98 lakh unionized workers in Central PSUs to every 10 years without any exception.

The Department of Public Enterprises has proposed that the next wage negotiation with workmen of all 237 Central PSUs should extend the wage review periodicity to 10 years.

‘‘This is being done to maintain uniformity among all categories in wage/pay revision and avoid anomalies in the pay structure,’’ says the DPE proposal.

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The 7th Round of Wage Negotiations comes into effect from January 2007.

The NDA government in January 1999 approved a 10-year wage review for the 6th Round, but later added a five-year-review option after trade unions vehemently opposed it.

For PSUs opting for 10-year revision, the norms allowed conversion of past dearness allowance into the new basic pay. But to discourage unions from opting for five-year review, the government restricted this DA conversion to 75 per cent for those with basic pay above Rs 6,550 per month.

But even this dampener was relaxed by the UPA government for 4.44 lakh coal workmen last July due to the fear of a weeklong strike call by five trade unions.

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The DPE’s new proposal is in line with a panel of Secretaries’ recommendation.