VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has directed officials to ensure that there is no reduction in wages of employees after fixing the fitment.
As part of the ongoing exercise on finalising the fitment and implementation of Pay Revision Commission (PRC) recommendations, Chief Secretary Sameer Sharma, GAD Secretary (Services) Sashibushan Kumar and officials of the Finance department met the Chief Minister on Tuesday and informed about the issues related to the PRC.
Disclosing the details to mediapersons, Government Advisor (Public Affairs) Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy said that the Chief Minister had instructed the officials to work out in the direction of increasing the salaries of employees to some extent as there is a possibility of drop in salaries, going by the suggestion and recommendations of the officers’ committee. The Chief Minister is particular that there should be some growth in salaries of employees after merging the 27% Interim Relief (IR) and fixing the fitmentdespite precarious finances of the State, he said.
The CM issued specific directions to the officials to resolve several non-financial issues raised by the employees’ leaders, he said. Stating that the officials will conduct talks with the employees’ leaders and explain the precarious financial situation, he said that the financial troubles are beyond imagination due to the outbreak of Covid. There was no such situation when the PRC report was drafted, he said.
“We appeal to the employees not to be disappointed. Ours is an employee-friendly government. Apart from announcing IR two-and-a-half years ago, the APSRTC was also merged into the government,” he asserted and hoped that a logical conclusion would arrive on the PRC by the end of the year (December 31, 2021). As the CM is busy till Christmas, the officials will give a final presentation to him after that, followed by a final announcement by Chief Minister after holding a meeting with the employees’ leaders.
If the employees are convinced during the talks with the officials, they can meet the Chief Minister. Telangana fixed 30% fitment recently, but it did not give the IR unlike AP, which is implementing 27% IR for the last two-and-a-half years, Sajjala said.